CHAPTER V. 



VARIOUS SPECIES OF COMMA-BACILLI. 



WHEN, in 1883, Koch first announced from Egypt that in 

 all cases of Asiatic cholera examined he had discovered in 

 the dejecta and intestinal contents a species of bacilli which, 

 "owing to their peculiar form, were called comma-bacilli," 

 he was, according to his own showing, 1 not yet acquainted 

 with their peculiarities in gelatine cultures ; and after 

 he had concluded his observations in Egypt, India, and 

 France, in 1884, he stated 2 that in a large number of cases 

 of intestinal disease the contents of the intestine had been 

 examined, but " never was there found any trace of comma- 

 bacilli." The intestinal discharges of dysentery and of in- 

 fantile diarrhoea, the saliva of the mouth of various animals 

 and the intestinal contents from various animals poisoned 

 by arsenic, were searched, but no comma-bacilli were ever 

 found. " Wherever I could get hold," he says, 3 " of a fluid 

 containing bacteria, I examined it for comma-bacilli ; but 

 never have I found them. Only once I found in water from 

 a salt-water lake in Calcutta a species of bacteria which at 



1 Conferenz zur Erorterung d. Cholera/rage: Berlin, July 26, 1884, 

 p. 22. 



* Loc. cit. p. 24. 3 Loc. cit. p. 25 



