The sensitivity in vitro of the Providence group of enteric bacteria to 14 antibiotics and nitrofurantoin.

During the course of an investigation into the antibiotic sensitivity of strains of the Proteus group of bacteria isolated from infections of the urinary tract (Middleton, 1957) a few strains of the Providence group were also examined. This group of the Enterobacteriaceae called type 29911 by Stuart, Wheeler, Rustigian, and Zimmerman (1943), and named Providence by Kauffmann (1951), has close affinities in many characteristics with the Proteus group (Singer and Bar-Chay, 1954), and a similarity between strains of the two groups was found here in their common resistance to many antibiotics in vitro. An opportunity has since arisen to study a larger number of Providence strains and a relationship has also been demonstrated between the biochemical types of Providence strains and their antibiotic spectra.