A Study of Acid and Gas Formation by Mem- Bers of the Colon-aerogenes-intermediate Groups in the Presence of Certain Sugar Alcohols and Their Anhydrides K. Pierre Dozois, Frank Hachtel, C. Jelleff Carr And

The use of dulcitol and mannitol as differentiating agents in bacterial culture media is well established. The mechanism of the decomposition of these compounds has been investigated by many workers. With mannitol, this field has been comprehensively reviewed by Eitel (1920). Our review of the literature, however, revealed no bacteriological investigations concerned with acid and gas formation from the anhydrides of these alcohols. Our interest in the bacteriological examination originated in the work of two of us (Carr, Musser, Schmidt and Krantz, 1933; Carr and Krantz 1934) who investigated the fate of these sugar alcohols and their anhydrides in the animal body. So striking was the difference between the fate of mannitol and its first and second anhydrides, that it was considered of sufficient interest to extend these investigations to the field of bacteriology. In general, although the sugar alcohols are metabolized in the animal body (albino rat), their anhydrides resist metabolism and for the most part pass through the organism unchanged.