A REPORT 



ON THE 



MICROSCOPIC OBJECTS FOUND IN 

 CHOLERA EVACUATIONS, ETC. 



T. E. LEWIS, M.B. 



[ Of Bate April, 1870.] 



Ik accordance with instructions issued at the commencement of this inquiry, attention 

 has been specially directed towards obtaining facts bearing on the truth or otherwise of 

 two hypotheses regarding the cause of cholera — namely, the theory of its fungoid 

 origin, particularly the one advanced by Professor Hallier of Jena; and the theory of 

 the connection existing between cholera and certain conditions of the soil, promulgated 

 by Professor Max von Pettenkofer of Munich. 



In both theories the existence of a specific poison of an organised nature is 

 maintained— a ^ferm ; and both savants believe it to exist in the alvine discharges of a 

 person affected with cholera. The Munich Professor does not risk an opinion as to 

 whether it belongs to the animal or to the vegetable kingdom, but infers that the soil 

 is the nidus in which it grows ; whereas Professor Hallier maintains that it multiplies 

 in the human body, and unhesitatingly affirms it to be a fungus. 



An account of the observations which have been made in order to test the views 

 advanced by Professor Hallier will occupy the first portion of the report ; and, as in 

 the course of the investigation my attention has been directed to a consideration of 

 the microscopic objects which are found in the evacuatio ns of cholera patients, a 

 description of them will at the same time be given ; together with illustrations of 

 various initiatory experiments bearing on the general question of "disease-germs." 

 [The second portion of the report mainly deals with Professor Pettenkofer's theory.] 



