In attempting to follow the activity of certain food poisoning organisms in the intestine it was found that before such an investigation could be made more must be learned regarding the in vivo activity of bacteria normally inhabiting the intestine. The enormous number of bacteria of different types usually present in the ileum and colon obscure the pathogenic significance of any one organism. The majority of previous studies have been made on feces because of the technical difficulties encountered in obtaining specimens from various levels of the intestine under physiologic conditions. We have attempted to use a different technic by maintaining normal physiologic conditions in dogs and in monkeys by means of fistulas into different levels of the intestine in some experiments and by isolating segments of the small and large intestine in others. Particular attention was given to the relationship and maintenance of certain bacteria in the intestine and the data are presented under the following headings : (1) technic, (2) the fate of Bacterium coli and Bacterium prodigiosum when introduced in food and injected into the stomach of monkeys, (3) bacterial activity in the small intestine and (4) bacterial activity in the colon.
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Dack et al. (1934) studied this question.