ALTHOUGH rubber is generally regarded as being relatively inert, it is slowly attacked by certain microorganisms. This first came to the attention of the senior author when, due to a shortage of glass-stoppered bottles, an attempt was made to supplement them with rubber-stoppered bottles for studying the RO.D. of sea water. Almost invariably it was found that more oxygen was consumed by micro-organisms in sea water in the presence of rubber than in its absence. Even the small amount of rubber gasket exposed to the water in citrate of magnesia bottles caused an increase in the amount of oxygen consumed after 5 to 10 days incubation at 25°C. The examination of heat-sterilized and chemically preserved controls indicated that the majority of the increased oxygen consumption was caused by biological activity.An extension of these observations and a precursory review of the literature reveals that various kinds of natural and synthetic rubber are attacked by numerous microbial species representing several genera.
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