Human flora

[Benjamin Barrett]

ho, ho, ho….

On Dec 21, 2011, at 4:57 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

>
> Mixed fecal flora!  Just the thing for the holiday centerpiece!
>
> LH
>
> On Dec 21, 2011, at 7:42 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>
>> Definition 3a of "flora" in the OED says: "The plants or plant life of any particular type of environment."
>>
>> There are four citations that relate to human/animal flora (the first one possibly not so):
>>
>> -----
>> 1908    Jrnl. Biol. Chem. 5 285   The gas ratio is not an especially important characteristic in mixed fecal flora.
>> 1908    Jrnl. Biol. Chem. 5 296   The influence of these organisms upon the intestinal flora of mice.
>> 1939    A. Huxley After Many a Summer i. v. 65   He began to talk‥about fatty alcohols and the intestinal flora of carp.
>> 1971    Nature 8 Jan. 120/1   The resident flora of the external auditory canal.
>> -----
>>
>> The problem is that these flora are not plants or plant life (or at least mostly not so). The Wikipedia entry on gut flora (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gut_flora) says:
>>
>> -----
>> Bacteria make up most of the flora in the colon and up to 60% of the dry mass of feces. Somewhere between 300 and 1000 different species live in the gut, with most estimates at about 500. However, it is probable that 99% of the bacteria come from about 30 or 40 species. Fungi and protozoa also make up a part of the gut flora, but little is known about their activities.
>> ----

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org