CHAPTER VIII. 



THE 1NFECTIVENESS OF CHOLERA. 



IN the foregoing chapters we have pointed out that under 

 certain conditions large numbers of comma-bacilli may pass 

 in the living condition through the stomach into the intestine, 

 without producing serious results in the latter organ unless 

 it be previously diseased. Millions may pass thus through 

 the healthy small intestine, as is shown by the numerous 

 experiments of Koch above quoted, without producing any 

 result whatever. And this fact, I think, disposes of the 

 idea that they can be the cause of Asiatic cholera in the 

 human subject. Can any one doubt, who has reflected on 

 the actual conditions obtaining in an epidemic of cholera, 

 that under natural conditions of infection this cannot be so ? 

 Is it not one of the most terrible facts known and constantly 

 observed in cholera epidemics, that in a locality where a 

 cholera epidemic has broken out, young and old, healthy 

 and unhealthy, alike are liable to infection ? Is it possible, 

 is it in the least justifiable, to assume that in all these 

 persons the state of the stomach at the time of infection was 

 such that its contents were not of the acidity sufficient to 

 kill the few comma-bacilli for in natural infection it can 

 only be a question of very minute particles of contagium 



