68 The Microscope. 



A French Criticism on Kock's Cholera-Bacillus. — At the 

 .meeting of the Academie de Medicine, August 5, a report was 

 read by M. Strauss for himself and M. Rough, containing a 

 summary of the labors of the French Commission in Egypt 

 and in Toulon. It declared that the disease in France was 

 identical in its morbid anatomy with that in Egypt. With re- 

 gard to the supposed specific organism giving rise to cholera, it 

 stated that in the intestinal mucous membrane there were found 

 a variety of forms of bacteria, especially when the case was 

 prolonged; but in the very rapid cases these organisms are 

 much less numerous, and in the most acute it is impossible 

 to detect their presence. Following the method of Weigert, 

 adopted by Koch, the Commission declared that " in a goodly 

 number of cases of cholera the micro-organisms cannot be 

 found in the intestinal tunics." The comma-bacillus which 

 Geheimrath Koch considered as being the cause of cholera 

 was also recognized by Messieurs Strauss and Roux, though it 

 was not constant, and was generally less numerous than other 

 micro-organisms. Conceding to these bacilli en virgule an im- 

 portant role in cholera, at the same time they claim that other 

 organisms are equally present, and sometimes in numbers so 

 large that neither seems to preponderate. It is also claimed 

 that these organisms are not peculiar to cholera, but have been 

 met with in dysentery, as reported by Malassez. In leucorrhcea, 

 and in the discharge from a case of uterine epithelioma, M. 

 Strauss had also found microbes similar to those mentioned. 

 The reporters conclude with the statement that if the comma- 

 bacillus be the true cause of cholera it inhabits only the intes- 

 tinal contents, and in the most rapid cases it does not invade- 

 to any appreciable extent, the mucous membrane. It is neces, 

 sary, then, to admit that, in order to produce effects so rapid 

 and so intense, it acts by secreting a soluble ferment, a ptomaine, 

 or a poison of some kind, which, being absorbed, provokes the 

 symptoms of cholera. It is of interest that pure cultures should 

 be made and examined for such poison ; it would also be impor- 

 tant to ascertain if the comma-bacillus occurs in cholera nostras. 

 The peculiar and extremely minute particles found in the blood 

 of cholera patients in Egypt by the French Commission were 

 also detected in the blood of patients at Toulon; they were 

 attributed to a special alteration of the haemoglobin. — Le Pro- 

 gres Medical. 



