Individual differences in the bacterial flora of the skin of the forehead: Peptococcus saccharolyticus.

Peptococcus saccharolyticus was a numerically important constituent of the bacterial flora of the forehead of 20% of 40 subjects. 16 of these subjects were studied over periods of 12 to 54 mo. It was consistently absent from 12 subjects, was present on every test of 3 subjects, and constituted 96 to 100% of the total flora on 1 subject tested 8 times in a 16-month period. On the forehead of one subject, Peptococcus saccharolyticus was recovered in only 1 of 5 tests.