v.] VARIOUS SPECIES OF COMMA-BACILLI. 87 



before, there is very little known about the nature and 

 characters of the many species of bacteria present in the 

 normal intestine : therefore the off-hand statement made by 

 Koch and his adherents, viz. that comma-bacilli identical 

 with those found in Asiatic cholera do not exist in the nor- 

 mal intestine is, to say the least, premature and not justified 

 by their own limited observations. 



In this connection, and as a confirmation of what has just 

 now been said, I will quote Dr. Koch's own words, uttered 

 in the discussion that followed 1 the reading of his paper. 

 He says : lt The question as to whether there exists any other 

 disease, or any other condition in the human subject, where- 

 in this same (comma) bacillus occurs, cannot be at present 

 solved ; it will take years for its solution, and it will be 

 necessary from time to time to examine in this direction any 

 new disease that occurs. A strictly scientific decision (as to 

 whether these same comma-bacilli belong exclusively to 

 Asiatic cholera) is therefore at present impossible." In June 

 1884, a preparation of Koch's from the mucus-flakes of the 

 ileum of a case of Asiatic cholera was shown in London to 

 me and a number of others interested, by a gentleman who 

 was indirectly associated with Koch in Egypt ; in this speci- 

 men the comma-bacilli were easily recognised. I mentioned 

 on that occasion that I possessed specimens of the intestinal 

 contents from an epidemic of bad diarrhoea that had occurred 

 in Cornwall in the autumn of 1883, in which the same forms 

 of comma-bacilli occur ; to this the gentleman answered with 

 a smile and a shake of the head, so convinced was he from 

 the teaching of Koch that comma-bacilli are present in 

 Asiatic cholera exclusively. 



I. In 1884 Finkler and Prior demonstrated and described 

 1 Loc. cit. July 29, 1884, p. 55. 



