104 THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS. 
made by the Commission before leaving Egypt for India, the 
peculiar bacillus referred to in the last report being found in all 
cases. All attempts to communicate the disease to animals failed, 
however. Amongst the methods adopted in order to develop the 
virus were mixing the cholera matter with earth, and also with 
water, Pettenkofer’s hypothesis that the germ arrives at the epidemic 
stage in the ground, and the inferences from the frequency with 
which persons who have washed the linen of patients have been 
attacked, being thus tested. Damietta was visited, and careful 
inquiries made with a view to ascertaining the facts regarding the 
probability of the importation of the epidemic from India. Dr. 
Koch promises to forward later on a detailed report on the ‘results 
of this inquiry. On October 16, the Commission travelled from 
Alexandria to-Cairo, in order to proceed thence to Suez en route 
for India. Before leaving Alexandria the quarantine stations near 
that port and Damietta had been visited, but the subsequent out- 
break of cholera at Mecca led Dr. Koch to conclude that a visit 
to the Red Sea quarantine station was also extremely desirable. 
The members of the Commission were therefore conveyed from 
Suez to Tor and El Wedj, whence they intended to proceed to 
Jeddah to join the Indian steamer. ‘The members of the Com- 
mission would, however, have been themselves compelled to under- 
go along quarantine in Jeddah. In order to avoid this loss of 
time they returned from El Wedj to Suez, and joined the Indian 
steamer at that port on November 7. The visits to the Red Sea 
quarantine stations proved, Dr. Koch says, extremely instructive. 
He mentioned that on the day of their arrival at Tor 500 pilgrims 
were landed from a vessel of the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd’s. ‘The 
medical officer reported all well, but as the pilgrims landed the 
Commission observed several who appeared very ill, and detected 
unquestionable symptoms of cholera. A second vessel arrived 
during the visit of the Commission, and landed pilgrims. Cholera 
broke out amongst both parties, three deaths occurring amongst 
those landed from the first vessel, and one amongst those landed 
from the second, besides many cases of sickness, all under the eyes 
of the Commission. Dr. Koch promises a detailed report on the 
importance of the Red Sea quarantine stations, and on the circum- 
stances alluded to, “which have so serious a bearing upon the 
transmission of the disease to Europe.” ‘The Commission, in the 
course of their inquiries, have also given attention to meteorological 
conditions, the influence of the rise and fall of the Nile on the 
course of the epidemic, drainage, water supply, and so on. During 
their stay in Alexandria the Commission also made some important 
observations on dysentery, the occurrence of tuberculosis in Egypt, 
and on the Lilaria sanguinis hominis and other blood parasites. 
Dr. Koch speaks in the highest terms of the attention and un- 
