Earwax of bacteria. Cerumen has been found to reduce the viability of a wide range of bacteria, including "Haemophilus influenzae", "Staphylococcus aureus", and many variants of "Escherichia coli", sometimes by as much as 99%. The growth of two fungi commonly present in otomycosis was also significantly inhibited by human cerumen. These antimicrobial properties are due principally to the presence of saturated fatty acids, lysozyme and, especially, to the slight acidity of cerumen (pH typically around 6.1 in normal individuals). Conversely, other research has found that cerumen can support microbial growth and some cerumen samples were found to have bacterial counts as
Soul and Body poem" (246). Furthermore, the language of the poem is West Saxon in nature, and lends itself to an "Irish-influenced Mercian literary school" of thought, or the common thought found in the kingdom of Mercia, one of the ancient, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms found in what is now Great Britain (Lapidge 426). Based on language patterns and thematic elements, "Soul and Body" was most likely copied in the late 9th or early 10th century, "plausibly during the reign of Æthelstan." "Soul and Body" is a poem in which the soul addresses its body. It is clear, as Moffat notes, that there is an