PART I.] Tzvo Classes of Cysts Seen in Cholera Evacuations. 7 



report, in which the small bodies are said to be either carbonate of lime (probably 

 from the aromatic confection mixture taken), disintegrated blood-cells, or starch 

 particles ; the larger ones figured by Dr. Budd to be probably accumulations of 

 starch cells with disintegrated particles of vegetable tissue, and those of Drs. Brittan 

 and Swayne to be some species of bunt, as identified by Mr. Busk. The Eeverend 

 M. J. Berkeley (the greatest authority on fungi we have), on being referred to, 

 declared that the specimens he received were not fungi at all, so that evidently the 

 propounders experienced some difiiculty in recognising their own " bodies," otherwise 

 such microscopical experts as Mr. Berkeley and Mr. Busk would not have been 

 supplied with such entirely different substances. 



Here the matter rested until Professor Hallier observed a resemblance between 

 the cysts in the choleraic discharges examined by him, and those figures in M. Robin's 

 book, which figures are here reproduced (Plate II, Fig. ii), as being the only criterion 

 we possess of what Hallier really means when he speaks of cysts ; the only drawing 

 published by him of the mature cyst being that of a ruptured one (Plate I, 1). 



In the examination of cholera dejecta which I have made in Calcutta and in the 

 North- Western Provinces, many cyst-like bodies were observed in the choleraic dejecta 

 observed in India, and these in many cases closely resembled the ones figured in 

 M. Robin's work, but were not of such universal occurrence as the attention they 

 have obtained would have led one to expect ; indeed, frequently absent altogether. 



The "cysts" figured by Drs. Brittan and Swayne (the greater part of which 

 are here reproduced from the drawings accompanying the original articles of these 

 gentlemen) are certainly the kinds most frequently present in evacuations, as the fact 

 that the following observations concerning them were completed before either the 

 original figures or copies of them had been seen would tend to show. 



They may be divided into two classes. The principal figures in Dr. Brittan's 

 drawing will serve as an illustration of one kind (Plate II, Fig. iii, 1), and the leading 

 figures in Dr. Swayne's of the other (Fig. iv, 1-4). As the two classes are copied in 

 M. Robin's work, and Dr. Hallier does not intimate his belief that they are not 

 of the same nature, it will perhaps be best to allude to the two, so as to leave 

 no stone unturned in the matter. That they vary much in their nature w411 be 

 manifest from the following observations : — 



1. The dejecta of a patient who had been suffering from cholera about twelve hours, 

 and who died on the second day, presented an enormous quantity of globular masses 

 of a dark-yellow colour, except at the centre, where the colour was much lighter, and 

 the mass was much more transparent than at the side (Plate III, Fig. v, 1), which is 

 not unlike the ones figured by Brittan. Strong liquor potassse being added, one of the 

 " cysts " burst, as at 2, and gradually broke up as at 3, 4. The semi-fibro-gelatinous 

 mass in which the "cysts" were involved was entirely dissolved. Another slide was 

 taken, and two cysts selected, a large one and a smaller one (Fig. vi, 1, 2) ; strong 

 acetic acid being added, no result followed for some time ; pressure was applied, 



