THE CHOLERA SPIHILIA'M AM) ALLIED VARIETIES 399 



for about half an hour, Imt recover from it without showing 

 any ill effects. On the evening of the same or the following day the 

 animal shows an indisposition to eat and other signs of weakness, its 

 posterior extremities become weak and apparently paralyzed, and, as 

 a rule, death occurs within forty-eight hours with the symptoms of 

 collapse and fall of temperature. At the autopsy the small intestine 

 is found to be congested and filled with a watery fluid, containing the 

 spirillum in great numbers. Koch experimented in this way on about 

 one hundred guinea-pigs. These results, however, are somewhat 

 weakened by the fact that experiments made with some other bacteria 

 morphologically similar to the comma bacillus of Koch, but specific- 

 ally different, occasionally produced death when introduced in the 

 same way into the small intestines of guinea-pigs. Metchnikoff dis- 

 covered that young rabbits shortly after birth could be infected by 

 simply infecting the teats of the mother so that they received infection 

 along with the milk. 



There are several cases on record which furnish the most satisfactory 

 evidence that the cholera spirillum is able to produce the disease in 

 man. In 1884 a student in Koch's laboratory in Berlin, who was 

 taking a course on cholera, became ill with a severe attack of cholera. 

 At that time there was no cholera in Germany, and the infection could 

 not have been produced in any other way than through the cholera 

 cultures which were being used for the instruction of students. In 

 1892 Pettenkofer and Emmerich experimented on themselves by 

 swallowing small quantities of fresh cholera cultures obtained from 

 Hamburg. Pettenkofer was affected with a mild attack of cholerine 

 or severe diarrhoea, from which he recovered in a few days without 

 any serious effects; but Emmerich became very ill. On the night fol- 

 lowing the infection he was attacked by frequent evacuations of the 

 characteristic rice-water type, cramps, tympanites, and great prostra- 

 tion. His voice became hoarse, and the secretion of urine was some- 

 what diminished, this condition lasting for several days. In both cases 

 the cholera spirillum was obtained in pure culture from the dejecta. 

 Another instance is reported by Metchnikoff, in Paris, of a man who 

 became infected experimentally. In this case the algid stage of cholera 

 was produced, with complete suppression of urine, cramps in the legs, 

 contraction of the extremities, and collapse, the man's life being saved 

 only with difficulty. Finally, there is the case of Dr. Oergel, of Ham- 

 burg, who accidentally, while experimenting on a guinea-pig, had 

 some of the infected peritoneal fluid to squirt into his mouth. He was 

 taken ill and died a few days afterward of typical cholera, though at 

 the time of his death there was no cholera in the city. These accidents 

 and experiments would certainly seem to prove conclusively the capa- 

 bility of pure cholera cultures which have retained their virulence of 

 producing the disease. 



Lesions in Man. Cholera in man is an infective process of the epithe- 

 lium of the intestine, in which the spirilla clinging to and between the 

 epithelial cells produce a partial or entire necrosis and final destruction 



