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SUMMARYTo facilitate the isolation of anaerobes from cultures in which swarming organisms were present Roux flasks were adapted to provide anaerobic conditions. Using these flasks, five species of anaerobes were isolated from the caecum of mice resistant to colonization with Escherichia coli and other Gram-negative organisms. These species accounted for the majority of organisms seen in films of caecal material. No aerobes were isolated and the flora of these mice apparently consisted of a limited number of anaerobes representing part of the intestinal flora of conventional mice. Three of the species were clostridia and another was identified as Propionibacterium acnes. One species resembled Catenabacterium but was not identified. One of the Clostridium species could only be isolated when the medium was supplemented with yeast extract and vitamins. This species sporulated on media with ammonium phosphate as the source of nitrogen; tryptone completely suppressed sporulation.

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SUMMARYSera from patients suffering from Crohn's and other diseases and from healthy subjects were tested for agglutinins to anaerobic, gram-positive coccoid rods belonging to species of Eubacterium and Peptostreptococcus. Four strains labelled Eubacterium contortum (two strains), Eubacterium rectale and Peptostreptococcus productus were agglutinated by a higher percentage of sera from patients with Crohn's disease than from healthy subjects and from patients with liver and intestinal diseases (including ulcerative colitis), ankylosing spondylitis, granulomatous diseases, diseases of immunity and malignancies.The agglutinins were of the IgG and IgM classes and strain-specific; the titres were low.The results obtained with sera from patients with Crohn's disease and healthy people were subjected to discriminant analysis to estimate the probability, based on the combined results with the four strains, that a patient suffers from Crohn's disease. When sera giving an a posteriori probability > 0-95 (a priori probability = 0-5) were considered positive, the test with four strains had a sensitivity of54 % and q. specificity ofnearly 100 %. The results with sera submitted for diagnosis showed that positive reactions in patients with a diagnosis apparently incompatible with Crohn's disease were within acceptable limits.