330 The " Comma-shaped Bacillus '' as a Cause of Cholera. [part i. 



by certain bacilli which nearly resembled in size and form the bacilli found in 

 glanders. As is well known these bacilli are straight, and are, in fact, uncommonly 

 like the ordinary microphytes associated with decay. Dr. Koch also states in con- 

 nection with this subject that he had, previous to proceeding to Egypt, found 

 similar bacilli in the intestinal mucous membrane of four natives of India, but that 

 he had then looked upon them as due to merely post-mortem changes. When he 

 came to Egypt, however, and found these same bacilli in the intestines of perfectly 

 fresh cases, he felt that an important link was furnished towards establishing the 

 identity of the disease in Egypt with Indian cholera. 



It is highly probable that the specimens from India which Dr. Koch had 

 examined were those which were sent, at the request oi the Imperial Health Depart- 

 ment in Berlin, by the Sanitary Commissioner with the Grovernment of India. These 

 consisted of numerous dry-cover glass specimens of blood which I had collected from 

 several cholera patients, and of portions of the viscera of four natives who had died 

 of the disease. All these were examined by me before they were despatched, and 

 portions of each were reserved for further study. I had heard nothing further of 

 them, but the publication of the remarks above referred to in Dr. Koch's Report of 

 September 17th, 1883, from Alexandria, recalled them to my mind, and I was 

 glad to infer that my own negative results had been confirmed in Berlin. As 

 already observed, no importance had been originally attached to the organisms which 

 were present in the intestinal mucosa. During the last six months I have examined 

 hundreds of stained microtome-sections of these four, and of other specimens of 

 cholera intestines in my possession, and have found that when the mucosa is 

 infiltrated with microphytes at all they are either micrococci, bacteria, or long-oval, 

 and straight bacilli. 



In the report of the Commission, dated Calcutta, ■!: February 2nd, 1884, Dr. Koch, 

 however, announces for the first time that the specific bacillus of cholera is curved 

 or comma-shaped, and not straight, so that apparently it had become necessary to 

 abandon the microbe first fixed upon. Assuming that the four specimens from 

 natives of India which had been examined by Dr. Koch were those which passed 

 through my hands, the evidence they furnish seems to be in accordance with this 

 view, as in not one of them have I been able to detect any invasion by 

 unmistakable " commas," though at least one of the specimens may fairly be 

 characterised as abundantly infiltrated (in the manner described by Dr. Koch) by 

 straight (and as I prefer to call them) putrefactive bacilli. Judging from my own 

 experience, therefore, any extensive infiltration of the intestinal mucous membrane 

 in cholera by comma-shaped bacilli must be exceedingly rare ; and this, I believe, 

 is likewise the experience of the members of the late French Cholera Commission, 

 MM. Straus, Roux, and Nocard, whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making 

 at M. Pasteur's laboratory on my return through Paris. 



Whilst at Marseilles I had, as already stated, opportunities of observing 



