1887.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 223 
of by investigators (Schottelius, Biichner, Gruber) in demonstrating the 
presence of this microbe in cholera stools. A minute portion of the latter is 
added to beef infusion and the whole allowed to stand in an open vessel in a 
warm place. After a few days, sometimes only after five or seven days 
(Gruber), the spirilla will be found on the surface. It must be borne in mind 
that by this process a number of bacteria are introduced into beef infusion at 
the same time with the spirilla, which may interfere more or less with the 
growth of the spirilla at the surface. That the three spirilla may be thus 
readily distinguished in pure beef-infusion cultures has not yet been suggested 
so far as I know. It should not be lost sight of in endeavoring to identify the 
spirillum of Koch in cases of suspected Asiatic cholera. 
The spirilla ¢ and / entirely agree, so far as their growth in liquids is con- 
cerned. Ina few cultures of 7, a membrane has appeared, but only after 
standing undisturbed one or two weeks. 
In milk kept at 22° C. there is for nearly two weeks no microscopic change. 
At the end of this time, however, spirilla v and 7% have caused precipitation 
of the casein. The precipitate contracts into a very firm mass at the bottom 
of the culture tube, and a layer of acid watery fluid, equal in bulk to about 
one-half the original volume of milk, rests above the coagulum. A parallel 
culture of the spirillum of Koch shows even at the end of three weeks no 
change. When placed at 35° C. the process of precipitation and settling sets 
in in four or five days with the spirilla « and 7, while no change is observed in 
cultures of the spirillum of Koch after two weeks. 
The microscopic examination of the various culture media reveals organ- 
isms not differing appreciably in size or form from the other comma-bacilli. 
It is, in fact, quite impossible to distinguish them by this means alone, 
especially when we bear in mind that all vary slightly in dimensions and 
form according to the composition of the culture medium and the age of the 
culture. The short comma form always predominates. In older cultures, 
particularly in beef-infusion, numerous perfect spirilla are found consisting 
of from one to very many complete revolutions of the spiral body. When 
dried on cover glasses and stained in an aqueous solution of fuchsin prepared 
from an alcoholic solution these longer spirals are, as a rule, resolved into 
commas, and the true spirilla form is more or less obliterated. The comma 
forms are exceedingly active in their movements, even when the cultures are 
two or three weeks old. They dart to and fro with great rapidity, or resolve 
about one of their extremities as a fixed point. The spirilla, whose move- 
ments are slower, show very well the corkscrew-like revolution about their 
long axis as they move across the field. 
This spirillum was destroyed by a ten minutes’ exposure to 58°-60° C. 
When taken from gelatin cultures and dried on sterile cover-glasses it was 
incapable of infecting beef-infusion after four hours, indicating that in cultures 
four to five days old no resistant spore-state had been formed. No inocula- 
tion or feeding experiments were made upon animals. 
The rather fodiens and laborious work of identifying this microbe has led 
to the following results :—A comma-bacillus or spirillum not distinguishable 
from the spirillum of Koch under the microscope was found in hepatized 
lung-tissue. After isolation and cultivation in different media it resembled 
the spirillum of Finkler and Prior very closely, and was therefore easily dis- 
tinguishable in this way from Koch’s cholera spirillum. It differs from the 
former only in liquefying gelatin more rapidly and in growing more feebly 
upon boiled potatoes. The name, spirillum of Finkler and Prior /, is pro- 
visionally suggested. 
The conclusion which was reached by Koch that the spirillum found by 
him is exclusively associated with Asiatic cholera is not modified but rather 
