in.] CHOLERAIC COMMA-BACILLI. 59 



I do not think Koch has taken the trouble to examine more 

 carefully what I did say, for I distinctly stated that some of 

 these forms when examined fresh show as active a movement 

 as the comma-bacilli themselves. Surely this proves that 

 they are living. And by careful examination it can also be 

 shown that in many of these forms a single or double 

 thinning leading to deficiency of the wall of the round 

 organism is present, by which the organism divides into 

 two more or less semicircular comma-bacilli. 



In mucus-flakes and fresh stools from some acute cases 

 such forms namely completely circular organisms, and 

 circular organisms with one or two gaps in the wall at 

 opposite poles are very numerous, and from the above 

 there can be little doubt that these owe their origin to the 

 same process of vacuolation and subsequent division. I 

 have got specimens of linen-cultures, of fresh stools, and of 

 Agar-agar cultures where the whole chain of changes is so 

 marked and so well illustrated that on a careful examination 

 one cannot help arriving at the conclusion just stated. 

 Some of these circular or oval forms show even three gaps 

 or fractures, so that one circle gives origin to three comma- 

 bacilli. And, finally, there are some in which the whole 

 protoplasm thins, and ultimately breaks away and disappears, 

 except a short rod or granule at one spot of the circum- 

 ference, while at the same time a discoloured or circular pale 

 sheath remains. I have before me specimens made from 

 fresh and active linen-cultures, where almost all and every 

 comma-bacillus is thus changed ; to speak of such specimens 

 as indicating degenerative changes seems to me unwarranted. 

 These forms are well shown in Fig. 15. 



On the whole, then, I think I am justified in maintaining 

 that these circular and oval forms represent the initial stages 

 of a mode of division differing from the ordinary mode of 



