The Carbohydrate Metabolism of Staphylococcus Aureus*

The rapid growth of staphylococci in the usual laboratory media consisting of meat infusion or meat extract, peptone, buffer, and metabolizable carbohydrate is accompanied by the consumption of sugar and the production of much acid; only relatively slight changes are noted in the nitrogenous constituents (Kendall, Farmer, Bagg, and Day (1)). Kendall, Friedemann, and Ishikawa (2) obtained a yield of from 46 to 79 per cent of lactic acid from the metabolized sugar by the action of bacterial suspensions at 42” under relatively aerobic conditions. From 40 to 77 per cent of pyruvic acid was converted into lactic acid; considerable quantities of volatile acids and CO2 were also obtained. Similar results were obtained by Krebs (3) and by Barron and Lyman (4). A number of text-books state that the metabolism of carbohydrate leads to the liberation of acids, chiefly lactic, with small quantities of form& acetic, propionic, butyric, and’ valerianic acids (see, for example, Kendall (5)). A review of the literature thus indicates that the chief products of carbohydrate metabolism have not been determined.