The bactericidal action of rabbit bile on certain strains of streptococci

Abstract

The phenomenon here described was noted during the course of a series of experiments on rabbits designed to test the pathogenicity of a certain strain of hemolytic streptococcus. It was found that, although at autopsy the various organs of the peritoneal cavity were filled with living streptococci, the bile was always sterile. This led to the testing, in vitro, of bile from other rabbits as well as from various other animals, to find out, whether they possessed bactericidal action on this strain of streptococcus. All samples of rabbit bile proved to be bactericidal, whereas the bile of the ox, sheep, cat, dog, pig, guinea pig, and human exerted no deleterious effect on the streptococci.The strain of streptoccus used (Strain “H”)1 in these preliminary experiments was, according to Holman's classification, Streptococcus pyogenes—a hemolytic, non-mannite fermenting streptococcus. Our next step was to test various strains of streptococci from human and animal sources, these strains having been classified acco...