342 BACTERIOLOGY. 



been known to suffer from Asiatic cholera spontan- 

 eously. 



The failure to induce cholera in animals by feeding, 

 or by injection of cultures into the stomach, was shown 

 by Nicati and Rietsch l to be due to the destructive action 

 of the acid gastric juice on the bacilli. They showed 

 that if cultures of this organism were introduced into 

 the alimentary tract of certain animals in such a manner 

 that they would not be subjected to the influence of the 

 gastric juice, a condition pathologically closely simu- 

 lating cholera as it occurs in man, could be produced. 

 For this purpose the common bile duct was ligated, after 

 which the cultures were injected directly into the duod- 

 enum. Such interference with the flow of bile lessens 

 intestinal peristalsis, and thus permits the development 

 of the bacilli at the point at which they are deposited, 

 that is, the portion of the intestine having an alkaline 

 reaction and beyond the influence of the acid stomach- 

 juice. 



By this method Nicati and Rietsch, Van Ermeugem, 2 

 Koch, 3 and others were enabled to produce in the 

 animals upon which they operated a condition that 

 was, if not identical, at all events very similar patho- 

 logically to that seen in the intestine of subjects dead 

 of the disease. 



At a subsequent conference held in Berlin in 1885 

 Koch 4 described the following method by means of which 

 he had been able to obtain a relatively high degree of 

 constancy in all his efforts to produce cholera in lower 



1 Archiv. de Phys. norm. et. path. 1885, xvii., 3e ser., t. vi. Compt.-rend., 

 xcix. p. 928. Rev. de Hygiene, 1885. Rev. de Med., 1885, v. 



2 " Recherches sur le Microbe du Cholera Asiatique." Paris- Bruxelles, 1885. 

 Bull, de 1'Acad. roy. de M6d. de Belgique, 3e s6r., xviii. 



3 Loc. cit. 4 LOC. cit., 1885. 



