CHAPTER XXIII. 



Organisms of interest, historically and otherwise, that have been confounded 

 with the spirillum of Asiatic cholera Their peculiarities and differential 

 features The vibrio proteus, or bacillus of Finkler and Prior The spirillum 

 tyrogenum, or cheese spirillum of Deneke The spirillum of Miller The vibrio 

 Metchnikovi. 



VIBRIO PROTEUS (FINKLER-PRIOR BACILLUS). 



Finkler and Prior were the first to contest experi- 

 mentally the significance of the presence of Koch's 

 comma bacillus in Asiatic cholera, claiming to have 

 found it in the dejections of individuals suffering from 

 other maladies, particularly cholera nostras. The mor- 

 phological and biological differences between the organ- 

 ism that Finkler and Prior had discovered and those of 

 the comma bacillus described by Koch are, however, so 

 pronounced as to warrant the opinion that the confusion 

 had arisen through imperfect and untrustworthy methods 

 of experimentation. At a somewhat later period Finkler 

 and Prior retracted their claims of identity for the two 

 organisms, and held that the bacterium with which they 

 were dealing was peculiar to cholera nostras an opinion 

 which, in the light of subsequent work, was also proved 

 to be without foundation in fact. 



The characteristics of the spirillum of Finkler and 

 Prior are as follows : 



* 



MORPHOLOGY. It is thicker and longer than the 

 spirillum of Asiatic cholera ; it is often thicker at the 



