434 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA. 



the microscope. The cholera spirilla at once become in- 

 active, and are in a short time converted into little rolled- 

 up masses. If the culture added be a spirillum other 

 than the true spirillum of cholera, instead of destruc- 

 tion of the micro-organisms following exposure to the 

 serum, they multiply and thrive in the mixture of serum 

 and bouillon. 



The specific immunity-reaction of the cholera serum 

 has been carefully studied by I/oburnheim, 1 and is 

 specific against cholera alone. The protection is not 

 due to the strongly bactericidal property of the serum, 

 but to its stimulating effect upon the body-cells. If the 

 serum be heated to 6o°-70° C, and its bactericidal power 

 thus destroyed, it is still capable of producing immunity. 



The immunity produced by the injection of the spirilla 

 into guinea-pigs continues in some cases as long as four 

 and a half months, but the power of the serum to con- 

 fer immunity is lost much sooner. 



Of the numerous attempts which have from time to 

 time been made, and are still being made, to produce 

 immunity against cholera in man or to cure cholera 

 when once established in the human organism, nothing 

 very favorable can at the present time be said. Experi- 

 ments in this field are not new : we find Dr. Ferran ad- 

 ministering hypodermic injections of pure virulent cul- 

 tures of the cholera spirillum in Spain as early as 1885, 

 in the hope of bringing about immunity. The more mod- 

 ern work of Haffkine 2 seems to be followed by a distinct 

 diminution of mortality in protected individuals. Ac- 

 cording to the work of this investigator, two vaccines are 

 used, one of which, being mild, prepares the animal (or 

 man) for a powerful vaccine, which, were it not preceded 

 by the weaker form, would bring about extensive tissue- 

 necrosis and perhaps death. Protection certainly seems 

 to follow the operation of these vaccines. 



1 Zeitschrift fur Hygiene, xx., p. 438. 



2 Le Bull, mid., 1892, p. 11 13; Indian Med. Gazette, 1893, p. 97; Brit. 

 Med. Jour., 1893, p. 278. 



