OF CHOLERA AND COMMAS. 309 
this it may be repeated :—(1) That there are acute cases in 
which the comma-bacilli are very scarce indeed, even after the 
disease has well set in; that they should have been present in 
sufficiently large numbers in the lower part of the ileum before 
the symptoms appeared, in order to produce the large amount 
of chemical ferment which is to be absorbed—for this is what 
is meant by absorption of the chemical ferment, for uo 
absorption can go on in an intestine during the attack itself, 
when the wall of the stomach and intestines discharge such 
enormous quantities of fluid as fast as they can—must be 
evident to every one to be an absurdity ; an assumption of this 
kind would imply that the comma-bacilli are present in the 
fecal matter in the lower part of the ileum before the setting 
in of the disease, and consequently they would have to remain 
here long enough to produce the virus, but for such an assump- 
tion there is not a tittle of evidence, and all our knowledge of 
the physiology of the intestine is against it; (2) that the whole 
of the small intestine presents in some acute typical cases the 
same appearances—viz. slight congestion, the cavity filled with 
clear fluid, in which are suspended the typical mucus flakes, and 
the great scarcity indeed of comma-bacilli in the flakes taken 
from the jejunum and upper part of the ileum; and (3) that 
the comma-baccilli are present only in dead tissues—for the 
mucus flakes are in all respects dead tissue, and they are found 
more numerously the lower down we go in the cavity of the 
ileum ; these two facts point clearly to the comma-bacilli being 
putrefactive organisms” (page 11). 
“The blood of cholera patients has been carefully examined 
in the fresh state, on stained specimens, and by cultivation ; 
the blood was obtained according to the usual approved method 
from patients in various stages of the disease, from ten hours 
after seizure to forty-eight hours, and in no one single instance 
could the presence of any kind of bacterium or other organism 
be shown to exist in the blood. The preparations examined 
fresh, those examined after staining with aniline dyes, 
revealed nothing that could be identified either as extraneous 
matter, or as in any way indicating a specific morphological 
