40 Objects Seen in Cholera Evacuations. [part i. 



adhered to the capsule. In other cases dilatations (macroconidia) appeared in the 

 filaments, and even from these a chain of spores was occasionally seen (Plate XXI. 

 Fig. Ixxxix).* 



(d) A small portion of the evacuation was placed on an ordinary slide with 

 a covering glass. It went through the same process as was described in connection 

 with Maddox's slide (a), and eventually yeast cells were produced as at Plate XX, 

 Fig. Ixxxvi, but nothing further. 



(e) A lUiilar slide placed in the same moist chamber presented similar changes 

 as the fo. going fcr the first four days. It was not examined on the fifth, but 

 when placed under the microscope on the sixth day, representatives of the kolpoda 

 family, both active and encysted, had made their appearance in great abundance ; 

 the various stages in their subsequent development corresponding precisely with 

 what has already been described in connection with experiments on ordinary excreta. 



Serous fluid, blood, and urine, from persons affected with cholera, as well as 

 from other persons, have been in like manner subjected to systematic and continuous 

 observations, the air in some of the experiments having been made to pass through 

 a red-hot tube before its entrance into the chamber in which substances under 

 examination had been placed, as adopted by Professor Tyndall, in order to destroy 

 the minute atoines of organic matter which, according to this gentleman's researches, 

 will pass through sulphuric acid or caustic potash undestroyed. The particulars 

 of these observations are reserved for the present, the results being such that no 

 benefit could be attained by giving them in detail. It is nevertheless hoped that 

 the foregoing illustrations will sufficiently explain the methods adopted in investigating 

 the subject of this section. The description of the changes which occurred during 

 the cultivations has been condensed as much as possible ; more so than would be 

 allowable were they intended to establish any particular fact. 



A not unimportant, lesson is, however, conveyed by even the comparatively few 

 experiments which have been conducted, namely, that, in spite of more than 

 ordinary care, very different forms of life will make their appearance in substances 

 which are derived from the same sources under conditions which seem to be identical, 

 and that too in very simple mixtures. Consequently, the greatest caution must 

 be exercised in estimating the importance or otherwise of any peculiar manifestations 

 of vitality which may be observed in substances associated with disease. 



The results of the investigations referred to in this report may be thus 

 summarised : — 



1. That no "cysts" exist in choleraic discharges which are not found under 

 other conditions ; 



* In connection with the appearance of this mucor-like fi'uctification in such intimate connection with 

 penicillium on this and on other occasions, although merely an approach to the " cholera fungus " of Hallier 

 — a fructification resembling it much more closely, if not identical with it, having been obtained under 

 like circumstances from ordinary excreta — it must be allowed that it speaks very strongly in favour of 

 the view so firmly advocated by this mycologist of a generic connection between ^w«/>iZZ/?/w and mucor. 



