MICROSPIRA COMMA. 489 



vomited matters, though by no means so constantly as 

 in the intestinal contents. 



As a rule, bacteriological examination fails to reveal 

 the presence of the organisms in the blood and internal 

 organs in this disease, though Nicati and Rietsch claim to 

 have obtained them from the common bile-duct in rapidly 

 fatal cases, and in two out of five cases they were pres- 

 ent in the gall-bladder. Doyen and Rasstschewsky l 

 found them in the liver in pure culture, and Tizzoni 

 and Cattani 2 in both the blood and the gall-bladder. 



Microspira comma is a facultative saprophyte ; that 

 is to say, it apparently finds in certain parts of the 

 world, particularly in those countries in which Asiatic 

 cholera is endemic, conditions that are not entirely un- 

 favorable to its development outside of the body. This 

 has been found to be the case not only by Koch, who 

 detected the presence of the organism in water-tanks 

 in India, but by many other observers who have suc- 

 ceeded in demonstrating its growth under conditions not 

 embraced in the ordinary methods employed for the 

 cultivation of bacteria. 3 



The results of experiments having for their object 

 the determination of the length of time during which 

 this organism may retain its vitality in water are con- 

 spicuous for their irregularity. In the transactions of 

 the congress in Berlin for the discussion of the cholera 

 question, it is stated, in connection with this point, that 

 the experiments made with tank-water in India some- 



1 Reference to Vratch, 1885, in Allg. med. Central Zeitung, Berlin. 



2 Centralblatt fur die med. Wissenschaften, 1886, No. 43. 



3 Obviously all pathogenic bacteria that have been isolated under 

 artificial methods of cultivation AW facultative saprophytes. Were they 

 obligate parasites, their cultivation upon dead materials would be 

 impossible. 



