Supplement to the studies on the etiology of black tongue.
1954 Volume 3 Issue 3 Pages 111-123
Details
1954 Volume 3 Issue 3 Pages 111-123
A strain of gram-positive bacillus which produces water soluble brown pigment was isolated from oral cavity of a healthy person and it was identified with Bacillus subtilis varietas niger.
B. subtilis var. niger was isolated from 20 within 21 cases of black tongue which occured during antibiotic treatments and from 7 within 20 healthy persons.
Black tongue occured by B. subtilis var. niger in human and animal (cat) experiments and the bacillus was again isolated from the lasion of tongue of experimented animals.
B. subtilis var. niger was highly resistant against antibiotics (penicillin, streptomycin, aureomycin, teramycin).
The above mentioned facts show that B. subtilis var. niger plays an etiological role on the occurence of black tongue during antibiotic treatments.
The relationship between administration of antibiotics and multiplicative growth of B. subtilis var. niger in oral cavity has been discussed.
