l888.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 11 



fever, simulating in many symptoms Puerperal Fever. Some of 

 these died ; while others really sick with specific puerperal 

 poison, recovered. During epidemics of Smallpox even, I saw 

 persons from mere fright not only become nervously shocked 

 and highly fevered, but affected with a rash, which was of course 

 of neurotic, or indigestive origin. 



To be short : in Cholera epidemics thoroughly neurotic cases 

 are not only not rare, but of a very intensive nature. There is a 

 form which the French call, Cholera " foudroyant " — lightning- 

 quick, or thunderstruck. It is a form, as you may infer from 

 the term applied to it, acute — very acute, a very severe form. 

 Now in these acute cases, Dr. Klein, of London, who is the chief 

 opponent of Dr. Koch's Comma Bacillus theory, found no 

 specific bacteria. But these, as we explained above, were indeed 

 no specific cholera cases, but were mere neurotic cases, while the 

 cholera patients, who developed the regular symptoms, never 

 failed to reveal the commas i,n the intestines, after an honest 

 search at the necropsy. In short there is a bacillous Cholera, 

 and a non-bacillous, or neurotic Cholera. The bacillous, or 

 genuine Cholera Asiatica is also to a great extent of neurotic 

 character in its action. Yet the non-bacillous is merely one 

 purely so — neurotic " kat exochen." There is an analogy to be 

 found in Phthisis. There exists a bacillous and a non-bacillous 

 Phthisis as Dr. Tradeau has shown. Perhaps also there is a 

 dualism in Hay Fever. 



To differentiate the three Comma Bacilli of Asiatic Cholera of 

 Koch, Cholera nostras of Prior and Finkler, and the one dis- 

 covered by Deneke in old cheese, which cannot be distinguished 

 by the microscope, we must resort to the test by culture. They 

 behave quite differently in their mode of growth. The pure 

 culture of the germ of Asiatic Cholera, when planted in a test 

 tube of gelatine, grows in the form of a funnel, but does not 

 liquify the gelatine. It spreads in a granular mass. The Hog- 

 Cholera germ liquifies slowly, and the Cheese bacillus liquifies 

 rapidly the gelatine in which it is planted. 



Another easier test is the chemical test discovered by Dr. 

 Biejwid (Zeitschrift fiir Hygiene). If a five per cent, solution 

 of hydrochloric acid is mixed with a bouillon of cholera germs, 

 the mixture will turn rose-violet, and this color will intensify 

 for half an hour, after which it will remain stationary. 



