474 BACTERIOLOGY. 



the sun ; and it is therefore not unlikely that the non- 

 observance of this fact may be, in part at least, account- 

 able for some of the discrepancies that appear in the 

 results of these experiments. 



In his studies upon the behavior of pathogenic and 

 other micro-organisms in the soil Carl Frankel l found 

 that microspira comma was not markedly susceptible 

 to those deleterious influences that cause the death of 

 a number of other pathogenic organisms. At a depth 

 of one and a half metres vitality was not destroyed, and 

 there was a regular development in cultures so placed. 



As a result of experiments performed in the Imperial 

 Health Bureau at Berlin, it was found that the bodies of 

 guinea-pigs that had died of cholera induced by Koch's 

 method of inoculation contained no living cholera spir- 

 illa when exhumed after having been buried for nineteen 

 days in wooden boxes, or for twelve days in zinc boxes. 

 In a few that had been buried in moist earth, without 

 having been encased in boxes, when exhumed after two 

 or three months, the results of examinations for cholera 

 spirilla were likewise negative. 



Esmarch 2 found that when the cadaver of a guinea- 

 pig dead after the introduction of cholera organisms 

 into the stomach was immersed in water until decompo- 

 sition was far advanced, it was impossible to find any 

 living microspira comma by the ordinary plate methods. 

 Several experiments resulted in their disappearance in 

 five days. In one experiment, in which decomposition 

 was allowed to go on without the animal being immersed 

 in water, none could be detected after the fifth day. 



Kitasato, 3 found that when mixed with the normal 



1 Zeitschrift fur Hygiene, Bd. ii. S. 521. 



2 v. Esmarch : Zeitschrift fur Hygiene, Bd. vii. S. i. 

 a Zeitschrift fur Hygiene, Bd. v. S. 487. 



