606 PATHOGENIC SPIRILLA. 



is greatly increased, and that when sterilized cultures of this virulent vari- 

 ety of the " comma bacillus " are injected into pigeons they become immune 

 against the pathogenic action of the " vibrio Metschnikoff , " and the reverse. 

 Pfeiffer (1889), in an extended and carefully conducted research, was not 

 able to obtain any evidence in support of this claim. 



NOTES RELATING TO THE PATHOGENIC SPIRILLA. 



Quite a number of spirilla have been obtained from various sources 

 which resemble more or less closely the spirillum of Asiatic cholera. 

 It appears probable that some of these are in fact varieties of Koch's 

 " comma bacillus " which have undergone various modifications as a 

 result of the conditions under which they have maintained their ex- 

 istence as saprophytes. Others are evidently essentially different, 

 and have no very near relationship to the cholera spirillum. The 

 principal points of difference between these recently described spirilla 

 and Spirillum cholerse Asiatics are given in the following resume, 

 for which we are indebted to Dieudonne (1804). 



' ' Since the outbreak of cholera in 1892, various vibrios have been de- 

 scribed which resemble more or less closely the cholera vibrio. When these 

 are tested as to their morphological characters, growth in peptone solutions, 

 in gelatin and agar plates, cholera-red reaction, and pathogenic power, they 

 may be divided, at the outset, into two groups : viz., such vibrios as show 

 only a remote resemblance to the cholera vibrio, and therefore are easily dif- 

 ferentiated from it, and such as present only minor differences or none at 

 all that have been demonstrated. 



"To the first group belongs the spirillum isolated by Russell from sea 

 water Spirillum marinum which rapidly liquefies gelatin and does not 

 grow at the body temperature. Reiion isolated from water, obtained at Bil- 

 lancourt, a vibrio which likewise quickly liquefies gelatin, but is not patho- 

 genic for guinea-pigs, either by subcutaneous or intraperitoneal inoculation. 

 Grunther, in examining the Spree water, found a vibrio which, upon gelatin 

 plates, formed circular colonies with smooth margins, very finely granular 

 and of a brown color. This vibrio did not give the indol reaction, and all 

 infection experiments gave a negative result. Giinther named this sapro- 

 phyte Vibrio aquatilis. About the same time (1892) Kiessling obtained from 

 water, from Blankenese, a vibrio which presented similar characters and 

 probably is identical with that of Giinther. Weibel obtained from well-water 

 a vibrio which liquefies gelatin more rapidly than the cholera vibrio ; its 

 pathogenic action was not tested. Bujwid (1893) isolated from Weichsel 

 water a vibrio which at low temperatures (12 C.) grew almost the same as 

 the cholera vibrio, but at higher temperatures was easily distinguished from 

 it. Bujwid's assistant, Orlowski, found in a well at Lubin a very similar 

 vibrio. Loffler (1893) obtained from the Peeiie water a vibrio which at 37 

 C. grows rapidly and liquefies gelatin very rapidly, like the Finkler-Prior 

 spirillum. Fokker (1893), from water of the harbor at Groiiingeii, obtained 

 a vibrio which rapidly liquefied gelatin and occasionally gave the indol re- 

 action. Injections into the peritoneal cavity of mice and guinea-pigs gave 

 a negative result. Fokker supposes that this is an attenuated cholera bacil- 

 lus, because it forms the same ensyme as cholera bacteria, and when culti- 

 vated for three months its characters, especially its peptonizing power, had 

 changed. Fischer (1893) found in the stools of a woman suffering from diar- 

 rhoea a vibrio which in gelatin cultures resembled that of Finkler and 

 Prior. In bouillon and peptone solution it caused clouding and formation of 



