TABLE 4.

Dissemination of spores^a

Organ	Counts at the indicated time (h):
	12	84	180
Blood	1	1	1
Lungs	62	2	5
Liver	11	12	7
Spleen	25	1	1
Kidneys	1	6	6
Mesenteric lymph nodes	37	1	1
Stomach	2.4 × 105	41	33
Duodenum	3.2 × 105	105	92
Jejunum	2.7 × 105	524	39
Ileum	4.2 × 104	312	18
Cecum	2.5 × 106	5.9 × 103	371
Colon	1.9 × 106	6.6 × 103	251

^aGroups of four mice (6 weeks old, female BALB/c) were inoculated by intragastric gavage with purified spore suspensions (0.2 ml; 1.83 × 10⁸/ml). Organs were dissected, homogenized, and heat treated, and bacterial spore counts were determined as described in Materials and Methods. As controls, we inoculated groups of four mice with PBS (data not shown).