On creatin-destroying bacilli in the intestine, and their isolation / by F.W. Twort and Edward Mellanby.

  • Frederick Twort
Date:
[1912?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On creatin-destroying bacilli in the intestine, and their isolation / by F.W. Twort and Edward Mellanby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    is almost entirely retained in the body. Neither the creatin nor the nitrogen is excreted. (2) Creatin taken by the mouth, together with large quantities of nitrogen in the diet, is largely excreted unchanged. Having noticed how susceptible creatin is to bacterial decomposition, one of us (E. M.)1 suggested the possibility that Folin’s results were due to the action of intestinal bacteria. It seemed probable that, when the diet contained but little nitrogen, the intestinal flora lived at the expense of the creatin nitrogen, with the result that neither the creatin nor its nitrogen was excreted; but on the other hand, when there was abundant nitrogen in the diet, the creatin was untouched by the bacteria because more assimilable substances were present, and the creatin on being absorbed from the intestine into the blood stream was ultimately excreted by the kidneys. With the object of demonstrating this possibility the following investigations were under¬ taken. Preliminary experiments. {a) In an earlier paper it was noticed that, when an extract of meat was exposed to the air, all the creatin disappeared in the course of a few days, and we thought that an examination of the bacteria present in such a medium might give an indication of the type of micro-organism responsible for creatin destruction in the alimentary canal. Films were made from a meat extract medium in which all the creatin had disappeared, and on staining, various cocci, Gram negative bacilli, and a few large bacilli were found. By means of aerobic plate cultivation at 87° C. pure growths of a number of micro-organisms were obtained, including micrococci, bacilli of the colon type, and some large Gram positive bacilli belonging to the Mesentericus group. When these bacilli were inoculated into a medium containing creatin ('5 °/o lemco, *5 °/0 sodium chloride, '1 °/0 sodium bicarbonate, *1 °/0 glucose, *1 °/0 creatin dissolved in distilled water) the creatin remained untouched. All attempts to isolate creatin destroying micro-organisms by this method were unsuccessful. (b) In the next series of experiments we inoculated media containing creatin, with pure growths of certain well-known intestinal bacilli, and with other micro-organisms isolated from cases of colitis and cystitis. Two kinds of media were used : (1) The creatin medium described above. (2) A creatin-meat medium which consisted of the creatin medium with the addition of one gramme of muscle to 10 c.c. 1 Mellanby. Journ. of Physiol, xxxvi. p. 471. 1908.
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