CHAPTER IX. 



OTHER BACTERIA IN CHOLERA. 



KOCH does not describe other bacteria, for he does not 

 think them of any importance ; the only ones which he 

 considers important are the comma-bacilli, and on these he 

 first fixed his attention on account of their shape and because 

 in acute pure cases they were in the majority. 



In the small intestine, and particularly about the ileocsecal 

 valve, one finds in acute cases of cholera, dissected imme- 

 diately or very soon after death, freely-floating glassy-looking 

 clumps of mucus, which slightly differ from the ordinary 

 epithelial flakes detached from the surface of the mucus 

 membrane or floating in the clear fluid. They resemble 

 clumps more than flakes, and are more transparent ; when 

 examined under the microscope they prove to consist chiefly 

 of mucous or lymph corpuscles, and of a few epithelial cells 

 embedded in a hyaline mucous matter. But the same 

 lymph-corpuscles may occur also, only not so numerously^ 

 in the ordinary flakes. These lymph-corpuscles are always 

 numerously present in those peculiar clumps, provided the 

 examination is made very soon after death. After an hour 

 and a half or two hours one misses them, since they easily 

 become macerated and disintegrated in the intestinal fluid. 



