Colitis and the Normal Colon Bacilli

Extract

This infection, which is mostly met with in those past middle age, the neurotic, and especially in those with intestinal atony, is particularly prevalent in mental hospitals and causes a high mortality. Although many so-called cases of colitis occurring in these institutions were in reality bacillary dysentery of the Flexner, Shiga and allied types, particularly so in former years, when sanitation was more defective, yet the relation of the normal colon bacilli, as causative organisms, to this disease must not be overlooked, and with a view to studying this relationship a short account of the B. coli will here be given.