The Effect of the Diet on Dysentery Infection in Sucklings

In this communication a report is made on the effect of the diet on dysentery infection in sucklings. The results are summarized as follows. I. Experiments on suckling rabbbits 1) Suckling rabbits fed with nonsugared condensed milk were compared in body weight, blood constituents, etc. with breast-fed suckling rabbits. The former were found to be slightly below the latter in body weight, but there was little or no difference between the two groups in the value of serum proteins, in serum protein fractions or in the anti-bacterial action of whole blood. 2) Suckling rabbits' fed with nonsugared condensed milk for 10 days were given dysentery bacilli per os. The dysentery bacillus was separable from the bloody, watery and muciform feces excreted 24 hours later by those rabbits. 3) To the gastric juice, the juice of the small and the large intestine, each obtained from the above described bottle-fed and breast-fed rabbits, were added a number of dysentery bacilli to observe their proliferation in each of the juices. The bacilli survived for 4 hours in the gastric juice from the bottle-fed and only for a few minutes in that from the breast-fed, though the former juice was not different in the value of pH from the latter. The two groups of suckling rabbits were on the same level in the antibacterial action on the juice of the small intestine. The bacilli multiplied to a several times as large number in 4 hours in the large intestinal juice from the bottle-fed rabbits and did not observably multiply in that from the breast-fed, the former juice being alkalin and the latter acid. It was thus demonstrated that infection with dysentery bacilli depends largely on the nature of the contents of the alimental canal. II. Influence of diet on Dysentery infection of human sucklings. 1) There was no difference in the antibacterial action of whole blood between the breast-fed and the bottle-fed infants. 2) The value of pH in the rectum was 4.9±0.6 in the breast-fed infants and a little higher 6.6±0.8 in the bottle-fed infants. 3) The dysentery bacilli added to the rectal juice from the breast-fed infants became reduced in number in the juice and those added to the rectal juice from the bottle-fed infants tended to increase in the juice.