ix.] OTHER BACTERIA IN CHOLERA. 173 



would rest on a basis not a bit weaker than the one on which 

 Koch's theory of the comma-bacillus rests. 



These small bacilli have been cultivated in the same way 

 as the comma-bacilli, on linen kept moist by filter paper 

 under a bell-glass, on mixtures of Agar-agar, meat extract 

 and peptone, alkaline and neutral, and their characters have 

 thus been studied. They grow well at ordinary temperature 

 (75 to 82 F.), so that after twenty-four to forty-eight hours 

 considerable masses become available ; of course they grow 

 much more rapidly at higher temperatures (90 to 102 F.), 

 and they grow like the comma-bacilli and other bacilli 

 much better and more copiously in alkaline than in neutral 

 media. 



The appearances presented after inoculation with them of 

 Agar-agar material in test-tubes are very much like that 

 presented by the comma-bacilli : from the point of inocula- 

 tion the growth spreads in the form of a flattened or filmy 

 rounded whitish mass, its outlines uneven or knobby. Pre- 

 parations made of culture on linen and on Agar-agar mixture 

 (solid), show the bacilli singly or very often in chains of 

 two or dumb-bells ; the single bacilli are of the same small 

 size as those mentioned above, but many of them grow to 

 somewhat greater length in the cultivation than in the fresh 

 material. After twenty-four to forty-eight hours' growth (at 

 90 102 F.) some of them begin to show the formation of 

 spores in the shape of a bright glistening spherical granule, 

 the substance of the bacillus gradually becoming pale, not 

 staining, and ultimately altogether fading away, so that only 

 the spore is left. After several days' growth many of the 

 bacilli, which have not formed spores, become pale, stain 

 very faintly, and gradually fade altogether away. This 

 change, indicating the degeneration and death of the bacilli, 

 differs in no way from what was observed of the comma- 



