HUMAN DIGESTIVE POWERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 249, 20 October 1924, Page 8

HUMAN DIGESTIVE POWERS.

A hitherto unknown member of tin I bacterial garden that each human beinj. . keeps in his digestive trnet hns beei I isolated and studied by a woman worker Madame Khouvine. Nt the Institul 1 Pasteur in Paris. It is of pcctiliai , interest becnnse it possesses the powei ito digest cellulose, the ccl'-wall mate | rial of hay, soft wood, and other "rough | age." Cellulose-digesting bacteria have long been known to exist in the 1 intestines of grazing and browsing I animals; indeed, it is believed that it is ! due to a sort of partnership between the | bacterium and the host-animal that I hoofed animals are able to derive : nourishment from hay—and even in the J ease of the goat and the camel, from I wood and paper. But so far human ] beings have never been suspected of j being even potentially "hay-burners." ilt is not suggested in the present inI stance that the new bacterium will enable man lo combat the high cost of ! living by eating cotton stalks or ensilage, ; The microbe digests the cellulose pretty ' thoroughly on its own account, and the by-products of its activities have little or no value as food. They are listed as "carbon dioxide, hydrogen, alcohol, and acetic and butyric acids." Apparently it must have cellulose for food, for , it cannot make use of sugars or starches, i While the new germ apparently does not do us any good, it seems also incapable of harm. Mme. Khouvine states that it is non-pathogenic.