SPIRILLUM CHOLERA ASIATICS. 419 



in Marseilles, Pfeiffer 12 cases in Paris; cholera patients 

 have also been examined by Babes and Watson Cheyne 

 in Paris, by van Ermengem in Marseilles, by Armanni 

 and Fede in Naples, by Schottelius in Turin, by Ceci 

 in Genoa, and also by Klein, Buchner, &c. In all these 

 cases comma bacilli have been demonstrated in the 

 dejecta, or in the intestinal contents. In microscopical Afewnegative 

 observations the comma bacilli were distinctly recognised mfcroscopicai 

 in by far the greatest majority of the cases. Some observations, 

 observers never failed to find them by this method of 

 investigation ; the majority have, however, here and 

 there obtained negative results. The number of these 

 negative results will probably be still further reduced by 

 the general use of Schottelius' method. On the other Constant dis- 

 hand plate cultivations have never failed in the hands of ^J^soT 

 the observers mentioned above. It is true that the comma cultivation, 

 bacilli were not found in every specimen of the dejecta, 

 more especially in old or complicated cases ; but the 

 examination of several specimens of dejecta during the 

 course of the disease, or of the intestinal contents after 

 death, always yielded positive results. It is probable 

 that greater difficulties will be experienced in demon- 

 strating the bacilli in very mild cases, such as frequently 

 appear to occur during cholera epidemics in individuals 

 but slightly predisposed to the disease. It may be that 

 in these cases the number of the bacilli is so small, and 

 their presence in the dejecta so temporary, that a certain 

 diagnosis will not be always possible. Hence in this 

 direction the capabilities of the method have as yet to 

 be determined. 



Comma bacilli have only been found in the vomit in Occurrence of 

 small numbers, on two occasions by Koch, and on three 

 occasions by Nicati and Kietsch, but in these cases it is &c 

 possible that the material vomited was the intestinal 

 contents which had passed into the stomach. Nicati 

 and Kietsch also found comma bacilli in a few instances 

 in the bile duct and in the gall bladder. The blood and 

 the other organs, even the mesenteric glands and liver, 

 were always free from comma bacilli. 



