Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1900-01-18

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A third species SEEMED to have a spe-
cial fitness Tor promoting the action of
biIe on fats.
A fresh set of tests is now recounted
in German publication devoted to
meteorological research. Vignal had
shown in a general way that these mi
crobes played a part in the work of
digestion. But no evidence was ad-
duced as to how beneficial such activ-
ity was. And this is what DR.. Nj.
Schottelius now reveals in the "Archiv
fur Hygiene und nfektionskrankhei-
ten" His investigation was conducted
with chickens. He made no cultures
of bacteria for this purpose. He as
sumed that newly Matched chickens
would acquire them with their food
very soon after Matching If no precau-
tons were taken to prevent such a re-
suit In order to institute proper
comparison, therefore, he made elabo-
rate provision for raising part Of his
chickens in such manner that they
would not have any bacteria in them.
The details of his method are so
complicated that it is needless to re-
cite them here. Suffice it to say that
he Matched out two broods. alike in
all conditions of existence so far as
was practicable, except in this respect:
One lot broke the Smell to find them
serves lncarcerated in sterilized YES
sci, whose atmosphere had been de-
prived of all germs of every kind.
The air was "aseptic." The food
given to them, too, was germ-free.
| Thus all microbes were excluded from
the protected" chickens, while the
other lot were left exposed to the or
binary chances Of infection-if such
term may be used in speaking of bene-
fetal bacteria. To make sure that his
precautions had been effective, DIR.
Schottelius examined the eXcreta OF
the protected chickens and found that
during the whole series OF observa-
no microbes appeared.
The difference in the rapidly with
which the chickens grew in size was
highly significant Those which were
confined in steriliZed vessel, ate ster-
ilized food and breathed sterilized air
increased in weight 25 per cent. in
twelve days. And after that there was
trifiing decrease.
On the other hand, those who were
brought up in the ordinary manner
made gain of 140 per cent. in twelve
days. This is nearly six times as great
a development as that of the pro-
tected chicks. But the increase con-
tinued and on the seventeenth day the
unprotected chickens weighed ten
times as much AS when newly Matched.
This was ten times the growth OF the
specimens from which the bacteria had
been so carefully excluded.
Here, then. is an added service which
the microbe renders to the man who
dimes. He already knows that the fla
vor of his cheese, the bouquet of his
wine and the aroma of his cigar all
depend upon the activity, at some pre-
vious time and in distant places, of va
rious species of heterogeneous But
now he learns that he must thank still
another kind-residing inside of him,
and working in the present tense-for
the facility with which he digests his
repast, and the amount of resulting
gain in tissue. Hence he is tempted
to suspect that any predsposition he
may have discovered in himself toward
the acquisition of superfiuous weight is
not altogether an effect of diet-as his
physician tells him-but, to some ex-
tent, of the size of the colony OF d.
gestive bacteria which has taken up its
residence in his department OF the in
terror This clew, moreover, may lead
to the invention of a new cure for dys-
pepsia.-New York Tribune.