138 THE BACTERIA IN ASIATIC CHOLERA. [CH. 



are established by which the choleraic comma-bacilli are 

 enabled to grow and multiply in the intestinal canal, these 

 chemical poisons may be produced. A very instructive and 

 parallel case is found in the so-called typhoid-bacillus. As 

 is now generally held, the experiments published by Fraenkel 

 and Simmonds, in which they maintained to have produced 

 typhoid fever and death in rabbits after injection of large 

 quantities of cultivations of the typhoid bacilli do not prove 

 any real infective action of the typhoid bacillus for the 

 rabbit ; it has been conclusively proved that this result is 

 entirely due to certain chemical substances generated by the 

 typhoid bacillus in the cultivations (Sirotinin, Beumer and 

 Peiper). This pathological condition can be produced 

 entirely apart from the bacilli by chemical substances 

 (Typhotoxin) produced by them in cultivations, and as is the 

 case in other similar toxic substances the severity of the 

 abnormal state depends on the quantity injected. Moreover 

 it has been shown by Beumer and Peiper that by injection 

 of a small quantity of the chemical substance a refractory 

 state against an otherwise fatal dose of the same substance 

 can be produced. (Beumer and Peiper, Zdtschr. f. Hygiene, 

 ii. I, p. no.) 



Of course it cannot be expected that all septic bacteria 

 will behave, both as regards power of multiplication and 

 particularly as regards chemical products, in the same 

 manner as those mentioned above, for it is well known that 

 some do not do so. Hence experiments with these latter do 

 not yield any result, and cannot, therefore, have any value 

 for testing or controlling purposes. In these respects Koch's 

 comma-bacilli do not attain to the dignity of, or at any rate 

 do not surpass certain notorious saprophytic bacteria, which, 

 occurring in normal putrid substances or the human body, 

 are capable when inoculated in small doses into rodents 



