AEROBIC MICROFLORA OF THE EYE 85 Table I Quantitative Recovery of Aerobic Microorganisms from the Normal Outer Eye Subject Aerobic Plate Count per Swab No. Sex Eyebrow Upper Eyelid Lowe• EYelid -- i JD M 170 9. 1.5 225 3 CA M 980 850 $,100 4 BL M 860 4,700 5,900 2 DA F 14,400 6•900 55,000 5 MS F 440 50 3O 6 RAB M 2,500 440 1,060 7 RB F 20 330 150 8 MK F 185 1,330 1,380 9 JG F 50 230 60 10 MR F 10,700 90,000 60,000 11 JM M 1,600 80,000 70,000 12 JK F 3,000 25,000 24,000 13 PM F 230 16,000 7,000 14 JL M 240 600 1,000 15 DH F 1,800 650 8,000 16 CN F 3,900 1,300 25,000 17 LB F 600 1,300 2,500 18 BB F 140 4,700 1,600 19 PJ F 5,500 2,000 15,000 20 JP F 750 6,000 10,000 21 RN M 3,000 20,000 70,000 RESULTS Table I shows the quantitative results of the first study. The eyebrow area showed a range of 20 to 14,000 aerobic microorganisms per swab. The range for the eyelid margin was 50 to 90,000 organisms and for the lower eyelid mar- gin 30 to 70,000. The number of microbes recovered varied greatly between subjects, but there was some consistency between the number of organisms recovered from the specific eye areas of each individual. Subjects with a low count on one area were consistently low on the other two areas. This trend was also apparent with those subjects in the high and medium count ranges. There was no correlation between the sex of the subjects and the number of microorganisms recovered which seems to be in agreement with Evans et al. (7). Table II shows the aerobic microorganisms recovered from the eyebrow. The flora consisted mainly of Staphylococcus epidermidis and diphtheroids which are considered by most investigators as resident facial flora. Staphylo- coccus aureus and Bacillus sp. were found on three subiects while $arcina and Micrococcus [lavus were only recovered once.

86 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS Table II Aerobic Microflora of the Eyebrow Subject APC • Organis_ms Isolated 1 JD 170 S. epidermidis diphtheroids 2 DA 980 S. epidermidis diphtheroids 3 CA 860 S. epidemzidi• diphtheroids 4 BL 14,000 S. epidermidis diphtheroids M. flayus b 5 MS 435 S. epidermidis 6 R•_B 2,500 S. epidermidis Bacillus sp. 7 RB 20 S. epidermidis 8 MK 185 S. epidermidis diphtheroids 9 tC 50 S. epide•midi• tO MR 12.750 S. epidermidi.•' diphtheroids 11 JM 1,600 S. epide•midis diphtheroids S. aureus 12 jK 3,0½0 S. epide•midi• diphtheroids 13 PM 230 S. epidermidis diphtheroids Bacillus sp. 14 JL •00 S. epidermidis 15 DH 1,800 S. epide•midis diphtheroids 16 CN 3,900 S. epidermidis diphtheroids 17 LB •00 S. epidermidis 18 BB 140 S. epidermidis 19 PJ 5,500 S. epidermidis diphtheroids S. aureus Bacill ts 20 JP 750 S. epidermidis S. aureus 21 RN 3,000 S. epidermidis diphtheroids Sarcina •'Aerobic plate count per swab. •'Micrococcu• tiaOilS. The nficrofiora of the upper eyel:'d (Table III) and the lower eyelid (Table IV) were comparable and more complex than that of the eyebrow. S. epider- midis was found on the upper and lower eyelid of all subjects. Diphtheroids were found on the upper eyelid of 18 of the 21 subjects and on the lower eye- lid of 19 subjects. M. [lavus, S. aureus, and Bacillus sp. were found more fre- quently on the eyelid margins than on the eyebrow. A. anitratus was recov- ered from four individuals one of wh .ch also harbored Klebsiella on her upper and lower eyelid margin. Two species of fungi were recovered in low num- bers from two individuals. Table V represents the week-to-week fluctuations in the microflora of the outer eye of five female subjects, all of whom wore eye make-up regularly. These subjects showed weekly var!ations in the number of aerobic microor- ganisms recovered by swabbing. Subjects 24, 25, and 26 had variations in the types of organisms present from one •veek to another. These data indicate the outer eye microflora to be dynamic, with any sampling being representative of the subject only at the time of sampling. Only S. epidermidis was recovered from subject 23 on all four weekly samplings. Further investigation of her make-up habits revealed that she ap-