GENERAL SYSTEMATIC BACTERIOLOGY 525 



with the definition "Zellen farblos, meist ohne grossere Schwefel- 

 kornchen in plasmatischen Inhalte." De Toni and Trevisan (1889, 

 p. 1005) give the following diagnosis: 



Baculi cylindrici, leviter curvuli v. undulatoflexuosi (nunquam spirales), 

 plasmate uniformiter diflfuso instruct!. Sporae (endosporae) macrosomae, ovoi- 

 deae in baculorum specialium apice claviformi-intumescenti ortae. Baculi 

 speciales, qui ad sporas ferendas praeparantur, fiunt breviores, crassiores, plas- 

 mate tenuissime granuloso. 



They list as species Vibrio rugula, V. urinae, V. amphibolus and 

 V. typhosus. 



Billet (1890, p. 24) defined the genus as made up of curved or- 

 ganisms with a single curve. 



Sternberg (1892, p. 18) makes the following statement: 



Filaments flexible, straight or sinuous; movements sinuous. A considerable 

 number of bacteria which are usually seen as short, curved rods, but which may 

 grow out into long, spiral filaments, are described by some authors under the ge- 

 neric name Vibrio, e.g., the so-called "comma bacillus" of Koch — "Spirillum cho- 

 lerae Asiaticae;" the spirillum of Tinkler and Prior — "Vibrio proteus;" the spiril- 

 lum described by Gameleia — "Vibrio Metschnikovi," etc. These microorganisms 

 have not the characters which distinguished the genus Vibrio as established by 

 Ehrenberg, and we prefer to follow Fliigge in describing them under the generic 

 name Spirillum. 



Among those referred to by Sternberg who used Vibrio for the short 

 spirals are Firtsch (1888, p. 369) who discussed Vibrio proteus (the 

 Spirillum of Finkler and Prior), Gameleia (1888, p. 482). According 

 to De Toni and Trevisan (1889, p. 1018) the name Vibrio cholerae 

 was used by Pacini (1854). Pouchet (1849) five years before had 

 observed vibrios in cholera stools. It is by no means certain, however, 

 that these observers actual^ saw the true comma bacillus, but it is 

 not improbable. 



Lehmann and Neumann (1896, p. 316) give the following description: 



Zellen kurz, schwach bogig, starr, kommaartig gekriimmt, zuweilen in schrau- 

 benartigen Verbanden an einander hangend, stets nur mit einer, ausnahmsweise 

 2 endstandigen Geisseln. Endosporen fehlen, nach Hiippe Bildung von 

 Arthrosporen. 



Mace (1897, p. 485) makes the following statement concerning 

 the use of Vibrio: 



Le genre Vibrio d'Ehrenberg etait trop peu homogene pour etre conserve. Le 

 plus grand nombre de ses espdces sont de vrais Bacillus, le restant des Spirillum. 



