CHAPTER XXIII. 



Spirilla of interest, historically and otherwise, that have been confounded 

 with the spirillum of Asiatic cholera— Their peculiarities and differential 

 features— Vibrio proteus, or bacillus of Pinkler and Trior— SpiriJlum tyrogenum, 

 or cheese spirillum of Deneke— The spirillum of Miller—Vibrio Metchnikovi. 



VIBKIO PROTEUS (fINKLEE-PKIOR BACILLUS). 



Finkler and Prior were the first to contest experi- 

 mentally the significance of the presence of Koch's 

 comma bacillus in Asiatic cholera, claiming to have 

 found it in the dejections of individuals suffering from 

 other maladies, particularly cholera nostras. The mor- 

 phological and biological differences between the organ- 

 ism that Finkler and Prior discovered and those of 

 the comma bacillus described by Koch are, however, 

 so pronounced as to warrant the opinion that the 

 confusion arose through imperfect and untrustworthy 

 methods of experimentation. At a somewhat later 

 period Finkler and Prior retracted their claims of iden- 

 tity for the two organisms, and held that the bacterium 

 with which they were dealing was peculiar to cholera 

 nostras — an opinion which, in the light of subsequent 

 work, was also proved to be without foundation in fact. 



The characteristics of the spirillum of Finkler and 

 Prior are as follows: 



Morphology. — It is thicker and longer than the 

 spirillum of Asiatic cholera; it is often thicker at the 

 middle than at the poles; it forms, like the '•' comma 

 bacillus," screw-like, twisted threads (Fig. 75). 



