THE INITIATION OF GROWTH OF CERTAIN FACULTATIVE ANAEROBES AS RELATED TO OXIDATION-REDUCTION PROCESSES IN THE MEDIUM

The growth of many pathogenic organisms in plain meat infusion broth is possible only when a large inoculum is used. This requirement is much less strict when the broth cultures are incubated (a) under anaerobic conditions, (b) in fresh media very recently boiled or autoclaved, (c) in fresh media reduced by means of hydrogen, or to which small amounts of cysteine or of blood have been added. It is suggested that these findings can be accounted for by assuming that the bacterial species under consideration can multiply only in media the oxidation potential of which is below a critical value. The favorable growth conditions obtained by the procedures enumerated above may be attributed to the establishment of a proper reduction potential in the medium; the same result is obtained by using a large inoculum, owing to the reducing properties of bacterial cells.