v.] VARIOUS SPECIES OF COMMA-BACILLI. 101 



normal guinea-pig, previously diluted slightly with salt- 

 solution, and then drying and staining in the usual manner. 

 Crowds of these large, fat, coiled organisms seen by Mr. 

 Watson Cheyne are met with, together with other smaller 

 ones that look very much like choleraic comma-bacilli. It 

 is, however, only fair to state that Mr. Watson Cheyne, be- 

 coming no doubt aware of his error, has afterwards inserted 

 on p. 28 the following corrective statement: "I think it 

 most probable that these bodies [shown in his Fig. 5] are 

 the cholera-bacilli which were found on cultivation to be 

 present in enormous numbers, because there were no other 

 markedly curved organisms present, and because they 

 seemed to show all gradations between small slightly-curved 

 rods, and the large, coiled bodies shown in the drawing." 

 Now, this is exactly what is the case in the material taken 

 from the csecum of every normal guinea-pig that I have 

 examined ; small comma-bacilli, single and S~ sna P e d and 

 spiral, of the size and appearance of the choleraic comma- 

 bacilli, and the large, fat, coiled organisms mentioned above, 

 and all intermediate gradations. 



In Fig. 31, I have given an accurate representation of 

 the appearances in a specimen, prepared, stained, and 

 mounted, of the contents of the caecum of a normal guinea- 

 pig, and it is evident from this that Mr. Watson Cheyne's 

 former and later descriptions are equally applicable to this 

 preparation. The above-mentioned large, fat, curved, and 

 coiled organisms seem to me more like flagellate infusoria 

 than comma-bacilli. 



Messrs. Cornil & Babes have recently l given a drawing 



and description of the comma-bacilli present normally in the 



intestine of guinea-pigs. Their drawing does not exactly 



represent the appearances, and they do not state, as they 



1 Microbes, Second Edition. 



