SPIRILLA RESEMBLING CHOLERA. 329 



covered with a moist, thick, slimy coating, which may 

 have a slightly yellowish tinge. 



The cultures upon potato are also very different from 

 those of cholera, for instead of a temperature of 37 C. 

 being required for a rapid development, the Finkler and 

 Prior spirilla grow rapidly at the room-temperature, and 

 produce a grayish-yellow, slimy, shining layer, which 

 may cover the whole of the culture-medium. 



Blood-serum is rapidly liquefied by the growth of the 

 organism. 



Buchner has shown that in media containing some 

 glucose an acid reaction is produced. 



The spirillum does not grow well, if at all, in milk, 

 and speedily dies in water. 



The organism does not produce indol. 



The spirillum can be stained well by the ordinary 

 dyes, and seems, like the cholera spirillum, to have a 

 special affinity for the aqueous solution of fuchsin. 



In connection with this bacillus the question of patho- 

 genesis is a very important one. At first it was sus- 

 pected that it was, if not the spirillum of cholera itself, 

 a very closely allied organism. Later it was regarded 

 as the cause of cholera nostras. At present its exact 

 pathological significance is a question. It was in one 

 case secured by Knisl from the feces of a suicide, and 

 has been found in carious teeth by Miiller. 



When injected into the stomach of guinea-pigs treated 

 according the method of Koch, about 30 per cent, of the 

 animals die, but the intestinal lesions produced are not 

 the same as those produced by the cholera spirillum. 

 The intestines in such cases are pale and filled with 

 watery material having a strong putrefactive odor. This 

 fluid teems with the spirilla. 



It seems very unlikely, from the collected evidence, 

 that the Finkler and Prior spirillum is associated with 

 pathogenesis in the human species. As Frankel points 

 out, it is probably a frequent and harmless inhabitant of 

 the human intestine. 



