FINKLER-PRIOR BACILLUS 145 



which may possibly be identical with the comma-bacillus 

 found by W. D. Miller in carious teeth. 



The Finkler-Prior bacillus, or Vibrio proteus, is somewhat 

 larger and thicker than the bacillus of Koch, but the spi- 

 rilla formed by it are never so long as the cholera spirilla 

 (fig. 51). The culture on a gelatine plate liquefies so 

 rapidly and extensively that the difference between it and a 

 culture of cholera bacillus must at once become apparent. 

 If two gelatine tubes are inoculated by making in them two 

 thrusts parallel with one another, the one with the bacillus 

 of cholera Asiatica, and the other in the same way with Vibrio 

 proteus, speedy liquefaction will be observed in the latter, 

 whereas with cholera Asiatica it occurs very slowly and 

 shows at the surface an excavation occupied by a bubble of 

 air. Furthermore the liquefaction of Vibrio proteus ex- 

 tends widely into the surrounding parts, the masses of 

 bacilli sink to the bottom, and there is obtained in the 

 liquefied area corresponding to both thrusts the form of 

 an empty stocking-leg (the so-called ' trouser-leg culture,' 

 fig. 52). Superficially the liquefaction of the gelatine soon 

 causes the two thrust-cultures to coalesce, and a skin then 

 forms upon the surface. 



The Vibrio proteus grows on potato even at ordinary 

 temperatures, whereas the cholera bacillus only grows at 

 that of the incubator. 



On plovers' egg albumen a very distinct difference 

 quickly becomes apparent, liquefaction beginning in the 

 case of Vibrio proteus as early as the second day, and an 

 intense yellow coloration of the entire nutrient mass soon 

 setting in, whereas the culture of cholera Asiatica shows 

 neither the one nor the other. The nutrient mass runs 

 round from the sides of the test-tube towards the bottom, 

 where it gathers in a comparatively thick stratum (Von 

 Hovorka and F. Winkler). 



