A comparison of 13 vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists with 14 nonvegetarian Adventists revealed relatively few statistically significant differences in fecal flora. A separate study involved a comparison of vegetarian Adventists (49 subjects), nonvegetarian Adventists (45), and non-Adventists on a conventional American diet (31) re: the incidence of the C. paraputrificum group in the fecal flora. The Adventist groups had significantly fewer C. septicum and C. tertium isolates than the non-Adventists. Reference to earlier diet studies done by our group revealed certain striking differences. Fusobacterium and C. perfringens counts were very low and lactobacillus counts very high in Adventists as compared with Japanese-Americans on either a Japanese or Western diet or Caucasian individuals on a conventional U.S. diet. Comparison of nonvegetarian Adventists with the other groups on a nonvegetarian Western diet also revealed several statistically significant differences. Finally, there were a number of significant differences in fecal flora when high risk groups (Japanese-Americans on Western diet and Caucasians on conventional U.S. diet) were compared with low risk groups (Japanese-Americans on a Japanese diet and Adventists).

Fecal bacterial cultures from 40 normal humans yielded Megasphaera elsdenii from four individuals and Acidaminococcus fermentans from 10 individuals, with two individuals having both organisms.

Fecal bacterial cultures from 40 normal humans yielded Megasphaera elsdenii from four individuals and Acidaminococcus fermentans from 10 individuals, with two individuals having both organisms. Two gram-negative anaerobic cocci, Acidaminococcus fermentans, described by Rogosa (7), and Megasphaera elsdenii, recently renamed and redescribed by Rogosa (8), have been isolated from animals. Our laboratory noted an isolate of A. fermentans from a sample of normal human feces in 1972 (2). We also noted that A. fermentans had been isolated from 6 of 22 normal humans and M. elsdenii from 2 of 22 humans (P.

BROSBE, EDWIN A. (Veterans Administration Hospital, Long Beach, Calif.), PAUL T. SUGIIHARA, AND C. RICHARD SMITH. Growth characteristics of Mycobacterium avium and group III nonphotochromogenic mycobacteria in HeLa cells.