42 THE BACTERIA IN ASIATIC CHOLERA. [CH. 



and masses of short, thin, very slightly-curved comma-bacilli 

 represented at a are conspicuously different from the typical 

 well-curved ones represented at b and c. 



Very interesting forms of the comma-bacilli are those in 

 which the curvature amounts to half or two-thirds of a circle, 

 or almost a whole circle. These forms are scarce in some 

 typical stools and mucus-flakes, in others they are tolerably 



FIG. 6. FROM A PREPARATION OF MUCUS-FLAKES FROM THE LOWER ILEUM, 



WHICH HAD BEEN ALLOWED TO UNDERGO PUTREFACTION FOR THREE DAYS. 



Magnifying power 700. 



abundant. I have specimens of the stools of a patient ill 

 with cholera a few hours only, in which the circular and 

 semicircular forms were the only conspicuous forms ; they 

 were of two different sizes, some about half the size of others. 

 Then I have specimens of the mucus flakes from the ileum 

 of cases that died within the first day, in which these forms 

 are very scarce, while in one case dead of typical acute 

 cholera in 9-^- hours the number of small circular and semi- 



