426 CHOLERA. 



should be applied, and in many cases it is advisable to 

 test the effects of intraperitoneal injection of a portion of a 

 recent agar culture in a guinea-pig, the amount sufficient to 

 cause death being also ascertained. The agglutinating or 

 sedimenting properties of the serum of the patient should 

 be tested against a known cholera organism, and against the 

 spirillum cultivated from the case. In the same way the 

 action of the serum of an immunised guinea-pig may be 

 tested both as regards agglutinating and protective properties. 



A number of other 



,:A v spirilla have been 



/7 ^ cultivated, which are 



of interest on account 

 of their points of re- 

 semblance to the 

 cholera organism, 

 though probably they 

 produce no patho- 

 logical conditions in 

 * V*^ v "-- v ~ ^ ^ |S,; * <A the human subject. 



Metchnikoff's Spi- 



3?^r*S ! rillum ( vibrio Metch- 



nikovi). This organ- 

 ism was obtained by 

 FIG. 109. Metchnikoff's spirillum, both in Gamaleia from an 



curved and straight forms ; from an agar epidemic disease of 

 culture of twenty-four hours' growth. _* . 



Stained with weak carbol-fuchsin. x 1000. fOWlS ill Odessa, and 



is of special interest 



on account of its close resemblance to the cholera organism. 

 In the natural disease, which especially affects young fowls, 

 the animals suffer from diarrhoea, pass into a sort of stupor, 

 sitting with their feathers ruffled, and usually die within 

 forty-eight hours. The intestines contain a greyish-yellow 

 fluid, sometimes slightly blood-stained, in which the spirilla 

 are found. A few of these spirilla may also be found in 

 the blood in the younger fowls, though generally absent 

 from the blood in the older. 



Morphologically the organism is practically identical with 



