SPIRILLUM OF ASIATIC CHOLERA. 341 



thymol, and by drying, without, apparently, any altera- 

 tion of this poisonous body. Absolute alcohol, concen- 

 trated solutions of neutral salts and a temperature of 

 100 C., decompose this substance, leaving behind 

 secondary poisons which possess a similar physiologi- 

 cal activity, but only when given in from ten to twenty 

 times the dose necessary to produce the same effects with 

 the primary poison. 



Other members of the vibrio family also, namely, the 

 vibrio Metchnikovi and that of Finkler and Prior (see 

 description of these species), contain, according to Pfeiffer, 

 closely related poisons. 



Experiments upon animals. As a result of experi- 

 ments for the purpose of determining if the disease can 

 be produced in any of the lower animals, it is found that 

 white mice, monkeys, cats, dogs, poultry, and many 

 other animals are not susceptible to infection by the 

 methods usually employed in inoculation experiments. 

 When animals are fed on pure cultures of the comma 

 bacillus no effect is produced, and the organisms cannot 

 be obtained from the stomach or intestines; they are 

 destroyed in the stomach and do not reach the intes- 

 tines ; they are not demonstrable in the faBces of these 

 animals. Intra-vascular injections of pure culture into 

 rabbits are followed by a temporary illness, from which 

 the animals usually recover in from two to three days ; 

 intra-peritoneal injections into white mice are, as a rule, 

 followed by death in from twenty-four to forty-eight 

 hours ; the conditions in both instances most probably 

 resulting from the toxic activities of the poisonous prod- 

 ucts of growth of the organisms that are present in the 

 culture employed. None of the lower animals have ever 



