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

  • Frederick Twort
Date:
[1912?]
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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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    [_.Reprinted from the Journal of Physiology, Vol XLIV. No. 1 & 2, March 29, 1912.] ON CREATIN-DESTROYING BACILLI IN THE IN¬ TESTINE, AND THEIR ISOLATION. By F. W. TWORT, Superintendent of the Brown Institution, and EDWARD MELLANBY, Beit Memorial Research Fellow. . (From the Brown Institution, University of London, and the Physiological Laboratory of St Thomas's Hospital.) In view of the fact that much of our knowledge of metabolism problems depends on feeding experiments, it is noteworthy that, in the interpretation of results, the possibility of the intestinal bacteria acting on ingested substances is seldom brought into consideration. It is obvious however, that this factor must be of importance, especially when it is remembered that micro-organisms are not confined to the large intestine but can be found in all parts of the alimentary tract, from the stomach downwards. Such a consideration is most urgent in the case of creatin and creatinin, because most of the evidence as to the part these substances play in the animal economy depends on experiments with the intact animal, and more especially on feeding experiments. But little information has been obtained by studying creatin metabolism with isolated organs, and this fact, taken in conjunction with the late appearance in nature of creatin and creatinin, namely with the vertebrates, suggests that their function is a highly specialised one, depending on the normal performance of many other chemical processes in the body. Apart from a general consideration, some results obtained by Folin1, by feeding human beings with creatin under various conditions of dietary, raise the question as to whether bacterial action in the intestine is not an important factor in such experiments. Folin’s results may be briefly stated thus:—(1) creatin taken by the mouth, together with a diet containing small quantities of nitrogen, 1 Folin. Lancet, Sept. 1906, p. 738.
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