OF CHOLERA AND COMMAS. 3815 
bacilli or small bacilli, is it possible to produce in animals (mice, 
rats, cats, rabbits, and monkeys) any illness, be the intro- 
duction into the system carried out by feeding, by subcutaneous 
injection into the jugular vein, or by injection into the cavity 
of the intestine ” (p. 24). 
14. As regards lower animals, therefore, it seems to us that 
it has been demonstrated that neither the alvine dejections of 
cholera nor cultivations of isolated comma-bacilli, obtained 
from such dejecta are capable of producing cholera, nor even 
of producing systems undoubtedly of a choleraic type. On 
the other hand, there is no direct experimental evidence, so far 
as we are aware, that cholera can be induced in man by the 
introduction of a pure cultivation of comma-bacilli into his 
system; on the contrary, it is alleged that they have been 
swallowed with impunity. 
15. The report under consideration deals with several other 
phases of the cholera question, but the portions referred to in 
the foregoing pages appear to be the most important. The 
investigations described, like most others recently undertaken 
with a view of elucidating the etiology of cholera, may, for the 
most part, be characterised as an attempt to confirm or refute 
the doctrine that the disease is caused by a microscopic comma- 
shaped organism. The results of these and of others of allied 
nature which have been brought to the special attention of 
the Committee may, briefly stated, be summed up as follows : 
(a) That comma-shaped organisms are ordinarily present in 
the dejections of persons suffering from cholera. 
(6) That they are not to be found in the blood nor in any of 
the tissues, including the mucosa of the small intestine when 
the latter is examined in a fresh condition. 
(c) That comma-shaped organisms of closely allied mor- 
phological appearances are ordinarily present in different parts 
of the alimentary tract in health; that they are developed to 
an unusual extent in some of the diseases characterised by 
hyper-secretion of the intestine; and that there are grounds 
for assuming that when any predominant form is observed, it 
is in great measure attributable to the nature of such secretion. 
