88 



THE BACTERIA IN ASIATIC CHOLERA. [CH. 



before the meeting of Naturalists and Physicians at Magde- 

 burg, specimens of the intestinal dejecta of cholera nostras in 

 which comma-bacilli occurred abundantly. They had cul- 

 tivated them, and had thus obtained them in large numbers. 

 True, the dejecta from which the comma-bacilli were ob- 

 tained had been kept for some days, and the methods of cul- 

 tivation employed by Finkler and Prior were not free from 



FIG. 29. CULTIVATION OF TINKLER'S COMMA-BACILLI IN NUTRITIVE GELATINE 

 (lO PER CENT.) AFTER FOUR DAYS* INCUBATION. 



objection, and as a matter of fact their cultivations were at 

 that time not pure cultivations of comma-bacilli ; still, what- 

 ever might be urged against their description of the morpho- 

 logical changes they ascribed to those comma-bacilli, the fact 

 remained and could not be criticised away, that veritable 

 comma-bacilli possessing each and all of the morphological 

 characters of the choleraic comma-bacilli single commas 



