324 BACTERIOLOGY. 



At the time of this epidemic a culture of a 

 comma bacillus was obtained from the Nord- 

 hafen in Berlin which agreed in all respects 

 with Koch's comma bacteria, and on this basis 

 the river Spree was orEcially declared to be 

 " infected " ; afterwards this species was found 

 not to respond to Pfeiffer's reaction, and so 

 could no longer be regarded as a cholera germ. 

 Inoculation with the Finthen cholera germ 

 did not yield me a serum that would protect 

 against the cholera bacteria of Hamburg. R. 

 Pfeiffer himself did not obtain from the Mas- 

 sowah cholera germ a serum that would protect 

 against his test culture, although this Mas- 

 sowah culture was obtained in the course of 

 a severe cholera epidemic of Indian origin 

 which had furnished us with one of our most 

 virulent cholera cultures ; and a culture of this 

 same germ had caused a severe case of labora- 

 tory cholera in Italy ! Rumpel in 1893 ob- 

 tained two cultures of comma bacilli from 

 cholera cases that had ended fatally and 

 these when non-luminous, protected against 

 Pfeiffer's test-culture, but if employed at a time 

 when they were phosphorescent afforded no pro- 

 tecting serum. Ruete and Enoch found finally 

 that inoculation with a culture of the Fink- 

 ler-Prior comma bacillus afforded serum that 

 would protect against Pfeiffer's test-culture. 



