Bacteriologic and Bacteriophagic Study of Infected Urines

Abstract

In the classification of 112 bacilli from infections of the urinary tract, a group of 12 aerobic, gram-negative, spore-forming bacilli was recognized and described. Seventeen cultures related''to fluorescing bacilli were also described. Sewage filtrate produced marked lysis of 74% of the 100 non-spore-forming cultures and failed to produce lysis of 7%. These 100 cultures were classified into colony types on the basis of dissociative changes. The susceptibility of the dissociative types to lysis by sewage filtrate was tested. Results strongly suggest that no stage of dissociation of urinary bacilli is resistant to bacteriophage. Native bacteriophage was demonstrated in the filtrates of 26 of the 100 urines; in 20, only 2 passages were required. It can be demonstrated with the organism found in the same urine about as often as by using stock cultures of colon and dysentery bacilli. Native bacteriophage was found associated with every cultural group, with cultures in every stage of dissociation and with cultures having all degrees of sensitiveness to lysis. Therefore, contact with bacteriophage in the body does not produce in culture a resistance to lysis or any constant change in growth characteristics, nor does it force the culture into any one stage of the dissociation cycle.