SPIRILLUM CHOLERA ASIATICS. 461 



habit of overloading the stomach, any comma bacilli 

 which may have entered can the more readily obtain a 

 footing and multiply in the alimentary canal. 



The general nutritive condition, and the energy and 

 resisting power of a whole population may also show 

 marked differences, and may under certain circumstances 

 influence the seasonal or local spread of cholera. Starva- 

 tion as well as great assemblages of human beings, feasts, 

 pilgrim festivals, &c., favour an epidemic outbreak, 

 partly on account of the slight amount of care employed 

 in the selection and preparation of the food, partly by 

 the frequent excesses, and partly by the weakening of 

 the whole body. 



A population is apparently in especial danger in Predisposing 

 which at the time of the first cholera cases gastric dis- |fg*^ ances , 

 turbances are prevalent. Such seasonal prevalence of 

 mild or severe gastric disturbances, as shown by 

 diarrhoeas, dysenteric or even choleraic attacks, &c., 

 are observed in Germany almost exclusively during late 

 summer and harvest. It is unfortunately as yet not 

 possible to understand thoroughly the etiology of this 

 great increase of gastric disturbances at particular 

 seasons ; it is conceivable, for example, that the use of 

 raw fruits or the low temperature so frequent during the 

 night at this period of the year, and the consequent 

 liability to cold, are of causal importance : or it may be 

 due to some forms of micro-organisms for the preserva- 

 tion, distribution, and reception of which the circum- 

 stances during these months are particularly favourable ; 

 for example, these are the months during which in our 

 country a dry zone is present in the upper layers of the 

 soil, in which numerous bacteria may remain, and may 

 be carried as dust by the winds, and further during 

 these months bacteria are most frequently taken in by 

 articles of food. Whatever may be the ultimate ex- 

 planation, we may assume as certain that these autumnal 

 gastric disturbances, in whatever way they have arisen, 

 have a special favouring influence OD the epidemic 

 spread of cholera. 



Lastly, the individual predisposition of a population influence *f 



epidemics. 



