PATHOGENIC SPIRILLA. 



507 



an invasion of the mucous membrane by the " comma bacilli " was 

 observed in properly stained sections ; they penetrated especially 

 the follicles of Lieberkiihn, and in some cases were seen between the 

 epithelium and basement membrane. As a rule, the spirillum is not 

 present in vomited matters, but Koch found it in small numbers in 

 two cases and Nicati and Rietsch in three. In about one hundred 

 cases in which Koch examined the excreta, or the contents of the in- 

 testine of recent cadavers, during his stay in Egypt, in India, and in 

 Toulon, his " comma bacillus" was constantly found, and other ob- 

 servers have fully confirmed him in this particular Mcati and 

 Rietsch in thirty-one cases examined at Marseilles ; Pf eiffer, twelve 

 cases in Paris ; Schottelius in cases examined in Turin ; Ceci in 



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"a 



FIG. 179. Section through mucous membrane of intestine from cholera cadaver; a tubular 

 gland (a) is cut obliquely; in the interior of this (6), and between the epithelial and basement 

 membrane, are numerous spirilla. X 600. (Flugge.) 



Genoa, etc. On the other hand, very numerous control experiments 

 made by Koch and others show that it is not present in the alvine 

 discharges of healthy persons or in the contents of the intestine of 

 those who die from other diseases. In the writer's extended bacte- 

 riological studies of the excreta, and contents of the intestine of ca- 

 davers, in yellow fever, he has not once encountered any microor- 

 ganism resembling the cholera spirillum. 



As none of the lower animals are liable to contract cholera during 

 the prevalence of an epidemic, or as a result of the ingestion of food 

 contaminated with choleraic excreta, we have no reason to expect 

 that pure cultures of the spirillum introduced by subcutaneous inocu- 

 lation or by the mouth will give rise in them to a typical attack of 



