SPIRILLUM TINKLER AND PRIOR. 475 



ture, and at higher temperatures only give rise to a thin 

 brown coating. 



In all the cultivations of Finkler's spirilla a some- 

 what foul smell is developed. In nutrient substrata 

 containing sugar, fermentation and the formation of 

 acid take place, according to Buchner. Finkler's bacilli 

 seem, according to the experiments made by Finlder 

 and Prior, to be much more resistant towards drying 

 and overgrowth by other saprophytes than the cholera 

 bacilli. A cultivation which had been dried and kept for 

 two months over phosphoric acid free from water grew 

 when planted on fresh nutrient substrata. 



If a pure cultivation of Finkler's bacilli is injected Experiment 

 directly into the duodenum of guinea-pigs a certain on ammals - 

 proportion (3 out of 10) die according to Finkler and 

 Prior and numerous bacilli are found in the intestinal 

 contents, having apparently multiplied there ; Koch's 

 control experiments also showed that about 30 per cent, 

 of the guinea-pigs which had previously received soda 

 solution and tincture of opium, as in the experiments 

 with cholera cultivations mentioned above, died after the 

 administration of cultivations of Finkler's bacilli by the 

 mouth. Injection of considerable quantities of cultiva- 

 tions, either subcutaneously, into the veins, or into the 

 stomach, set up no disease in the animals experimented 

 on. Pathogenic action seemed only to occur under such 

 complex conditions, and then only so rarely that, as the 

 result of the experiments on animals alone, Finkler's 

 spirilla must be reckoned among the saprophytes. 



It is still doubtful, however, whether these organisms Habitat of 

 play a pathogenic role in man (this would be quite con- 

 ceivable when we bear in mind the similar though much 

 more aggressive behaviour of Koch's bacilli on animals), 

 and whether they stand in any etiological relation to 

 cholera nostras. Finkler and Prior state that they 

 found the same spirilla on microscopical examination in 

 five cases of cholera nostras; nevertheless these organisms 

 could not be recognised with certainty by other observers, 

 and more especially by Koch, in Finkler and Prior's 

 preparations. Finkler and Prior have only isolated 



