542 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



Spirillum Metchnikovi 



Isolated by Gamaleia from the intestinal contents of chickens 

 dead of an infectious gastro -enteritis which occurred in certain 

 parts of Kussia. The disease, although resembling chicken- 

 cholera in some respects, is quite distinct from the latter. This 

 spirillum forms curved rods and spiral filaments, generally slightly 

 shorter, thicker and more curved than the Koch vibrio. It is 

 decolorised by Gram's method, and is best stained with weak 

 carbol-fuchsin. It is readily cultivated, and is aerobic and 

 facultatively anaerobic. In gelatin plates it forms small whitish 

 colonies, visible within twenty hours, which grow more rapidly 

 than the cholera vibrio, and in two or three days produce marked 

 areas of liquefaction. In a stab-culture in gelatin a whitish 

 granular growth occurs along the line of puncture with liquefac- 

 tion, much like that of the Koch vibrio, but the rate of growth 

 and the liquefaction are more rapid (Plate XX., c). Grown in 

 eggs by Hueppe's method typical appearances are produced. 

 After ten days the white becomes transformed into a yellowish 

 limpid liquid, while the yolk, though retaining its form and con- 

 sistence, is quite black. On surface agar a thick cream-coloured 

 layer develops ; on potato the growth is brownish, and milk is 

 coagulated. It grows freely in broth and peptone-water, the 

 fluid becoming uniformly turbid, and a slight film forms on the 

 surface, and these cultures give a marked indole reaction on the 

 addition of sulphuric acid alone, in this respect resembling the 

 Koch vibrio. The 8. Metchnikovi is pathogenic to chickens, 

 pigeons and guinea-pigs, but not to rabbits or mice except in 

 large doses. It is, however, more pathogenic to guinea-pigs than 

 the cholera vibrio. Pigeons are killed by intra-muscular inocula- 

 tion, and fowls are susceptible to feeding, whereas the cholera 

 vibrio is not pathogenic to fowls by feeding. It is not agglutinated 

 with cholera-immune serum, and is hsemolytic. Abbott isolated 

 a pathogenic spirillum from the Schuylkill Eiver, Philadelphia, 

 which resembles the 8. Metchnikovi closely, and is probably 

 identical with it. 



Spirillum Finkleri (of Finkler and Prior) 



Isolated from the stools in certain cases of cholera nostras, but 

 its etiological significance is doubtful. It occurs as short, thickish, 



