SPIRILLUM OF ASIATIC CHOLERA. 345 



vapor of chloroform or by heat). He also demonstrated 

 that the serum of animals so immunified possesses a 

 specific germicidal action toward the cholera spirillum, 

 i. e., if into the peritoneal cavity of an animal immuni- 

 fied against Asiatic cholera, living cholera spirilla be 

 introduced, they will all be destroyed (disintegrated) 

 within a relatively short time. Furthermore, if the 

 serum of an animal immunified against cholera be 

 injected into the peritoneal cavity of a similar animal 

 not so immunified, and immediately afterward living 

 cholera spirilla be introduced, a similar disintegration 

 and destruction of the bacteria will also result. He 

 shows that a more or less definite relation exists between 

 the amount of serum and the number of organisms in- 

 troduced. Such a destruction of the comma bacillus by 

 the serum of an immunified animal does not occur out- 

 side the animal body, that is, cannot be demonstrated 

 in a test tube. The specificity of this reaction is sug- 

 gested by Pfeiifer as a means of differentiating the cholera 

 spirillum from other suspicious species, for no such dis- 

 integration of bacterial cells is observed if species other 

 than the cholera spirillum be introduced into the peri- 

 toneal cavity of animals immunified against Asiatic 

 cholera. 



General considerations.- In all cases of Asiatic cholera, 

 and only in this disease, the organism just described can 

 be detected in the intestinal evacuations. The more 

 acute the case and the more promptly the examination 

 is made after the evacuations have been passed from the 

 patient, the less will be the difficulty experienced in 

 detecting the organism. 



In some cases it can be detected in the vomited mat- 



