VIL] PRODUCTION OF CHOLERA. 129 



exclusively present in the cultures of the choleraic comma- 

 bacilli. 



Dr. D. D. Cunningham has published (in "Scientific 

 Memoirs by Medical Officers of the Army of India," Part II. 

 1886, pp. i to 14,) a very interesting series of observations 

 made by injecting subcutaneously in the thigh into guinea- 

 pigs cultivations of comma-bacilli directly derived from a 

 case of cholera. Some of the animals thus experimented 

 upon died in two to three days, and showed symptoms of 

 effusion spreading from the seat of inoculation over the 

 lower half of the abdomen of the same side ; peritonitis was 

 present, and a sticky secretion was found on the serous covering 

 of the intestine ; comma-bacilli were obtained by cultivation 

 from the subcutaneous effusion, from the peritoneal exuda- 

 tion, from the intestinal contents, and from the cardiac blood. v 

 These results are then comparable to septicaemic infection, 

 such as was the case in Koch's experiments on mice, in 

 Ferran's and my own experiments on guinea-pigs. 



I have found, what has been also noticed by others, that in 

 a large number of animals broth and gelatine cultures of 

 advanced pedigree when injected in large quantities produce 

 no result, and that therein they contrast markedly with 

 cultures of recent pedigree. I have received directly from 

 Dr. Cunningham of Calcutta fresh cultures of the choleraic 

 comma-bacilli and have been able to compare them in this 

 respect with subcultures that have been kept going for two 

 years and more. 



Another important fact capable of throwing some light on 

 this question is this. The cases of what is called ptomaine- 

 poisoning may be grouped into two distinct classes : the 

 one comprises cases in which an alkaloid, the product of 

 putrefaction and putrefactive organisms, is introduced into 

 the system and produces acute poisoning with gastro-enteritic 



