354 



NA TURE 



{Feb. 12, 1885 



de Quatrefages's work on the pigmies, the present instalment 

 dealing with the Asiatic pigmies or negritos, and the negrillos 

 or African pigmies. The general conclusion to which the writer 

 comes i- that modern science has erred in rejecting all that has 

 been written on this subject by the ancients, for in the midst of 

 many exaggerations and fables there were many facts. He finds 

 it impossible, in the present state of our knowledge, to offer a 

 satisfactory solution of one of the most curious points connected 

 with the geographical distribution of the human race, viz. the 

 narrow resemblance between the Asiatic negritos and the African 

 negrillos, separated as they are by a vast space and by nume- 

 rous and different races. Are these affinities the result of a com- 

 mon origin ? A paper containing a translation of a Dutch 

 account of Malacca, written in 1726, follows this, and is itself 

 succeeded by a long one by Mr. Maxwell, of the Straits Settle- 

 ment Civil Service, on the laws and customs of the Mala) - with 



reference to the tenure of land. The Rev. J. Tenison-YY Is 



prints two lectures on the stream-tin deposits of the protected 

 State of Perak in the Malay peninsula, and the volume con- 

 eludes with two accounts of travel, one through the State of 

 Remban in the peninsula, the other along the Tawaran and 

 Putalan rivers, which are said lo rise in the great mountain 

 Kina Balu, and flow through North Borneo. We observe, also, 

 the prospectus of a very necessary work — an English-Malay 

 dictionary, which, it is suggested, should be translated from Mr. 

 Klinkert's Dutch-Malay dictionary. 



Journal de Physique, vol. iv. January.— J. R. Benoit, con- 

 struction of standard prototypes of the legal ohm. M. Benoit, 

 who was associated with MM. Mascart and de Nerville in the 

 official French researches at the College de France, has, at the 

 re<iuest of the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, prepared 

 standards in mercury to represent the legal ohm. This paper 

 a account of the methods of calibrating and preparing 

 the tubes for four exact standards. It remains to be seen 

 whether these will prove as permanent as standards constructed 

 in platinum-silver or iridio-platinum alloy. — H. Pellat, on the 

 cause of electrification of storm clouds. Discusses the observa- 

 tions of atmospheric potential at different levels, and concludes 

 that the negative charge of the soil surface is explicable on the 

 hypothesis that it is continually renewed by the falling of nega- 

 tively charged rain. — E. Bouty, on latent heats of vaporisation. 

 Deduces the approximate law that the latent molecular heats of 

 bodies measured at their normal boiling temperatures are propor- 

 tional to the squares of these temperatures ; ta' ular evident is 

 given in support.— E. Bouty, on the specific heat of saturated 

 vapours. Gives a new formula. — Em. Paquet, determination 

 of the ratio of the two specific heats of gases. Describes ;i 

 modification of Cazin's method, in which the desired change of 

 piessure is brought about by a column of mercury, as in 

 Geissler's mercurial pumps. The deduced value for air is 

 1^4038. — J. Mace de Lepinay, method of measuring the interior 

 diameter of a barometric tube. Ingenious application of optical 

 laws to deduce internal diameter from the apparent diameter, 

 assuming the refractive index of glass.— G. Quincke, on the 

 measurement of magnetic forces by means of hydrostatic 

 pressure. Abstract of paper in Philosophical Magazine, 1 s:s j. 

 W. von Beetz, on normal elements for electromotive measure- 

 ments. Abstract from Philosophical Magazine. — K. Angstrom, 

 anewgeothermometer. An underground mercury thermomi 

 is read by means of an index attached to a rack and pinion, 

 which is operated from above. When contact is made with 

 the mercury an electric bell rings, and the index is read off. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 



Royal Society, February 5.—" The Relation of Bacteria 

 to Asiatic Cholera." By E. Klein, M D., F.R.S.. | inl 

 Lecturer on General Anatomy and Physiology at the Medical 

 School of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. 



I propose to bring before the Royal Society the results of an 

 inquiry into the etiology of Asiatic cholera, undertaken, at the 

 instance and expense of the Secretary of State for India, by 

 myself, Dr. Gibbes, and Mr. Alfred Lingard while in India. 

 This investigation will be published in extenso by the- India 

 Office, but permission has been granted to us to bring to the 

 notice of the Society some of the more important points of our 

 inquiry, particularly those regarding the relation of bacteria to 



Asiatic cholera. I shall supplement them by giving the results 

 of further observations which I have made since my return from 

 India. 



As is now well known, Dr. Robert Koch, in an extensive in- 

 quiry into the etiology of cholera in Egypt, Calcutta, and in 

 France, 1883-84, undertaken by him, Drs. Galfky and Fisher, 

 at the instance of the German Government, has arrived at certain 

 conclusions, which, briefly stated, are these : 



1. In all persons suffering from Asiatic cholera there occur in 

 the rice-water stools during the acute stage of the disease certain 

 well-characterised bacteria, which, on account of their curved 

 shape, Koch called "comma bacilli.'' 



2. These comma bacilli are mobile rods, of small size, of abi mt 

 the same thickness as tubercle bacilli, but only of half their 

 length ; they are always more or less curved, sometimes as much 

 as to form half a circle ; they vary in length according to the 

 state of growth ; they occur either singly or in couples, in the 



- arranged like an S. 



3. The comma bacilli occur in great numbers in mucus flakes 

 as well as in the fluid of the choleraic evacuations. They occur 

 in the lower part of the ileum of persons dead in the acute stage 

 almost to the exclusion of other bacteria, and in such great 

 numbers that the lower part of the ileum may be considered to 

 contain almost " a pure cultivation of comma bacilli." 



4. The mucous membrane of the ileum, particularly that of 

 the lower part, around and in the lymphatic glands located here 

 — the solitary and Peyer's lymph-glands — exhibits in typical and 

 rapidly fatal cases characteristic alterations : loosening and de- 

 tachment of the epithelium of the surface and of that lining the 

 glands of Lieberkiihn ; swelling and congestion of the blood- 

 vessels of the mucous membrane, particularly at the peripheral 

 portions of the lymph glands. These alterations are due to the 

 presence, growth, and multiplication of the comma bacilli in 

 these tissues, and the disease cholera is caused by the production 

 on the part of these comma bacilli, and by the absorption on the 

 part of the system of a special chemical ferment. 



This state of the presence of the comma bacilli in the tissue is 

 best pronounced in the lower part of ileum ; higher up it is 

 more limited, and gradually diminishes, and finally disappears in 

 the upper part of the small intestine. 



5. The blood and other tissues are free of any organisms, 



6. The comma bacilli grow well outside the body at the ordi- 

 nary temperature of the room, but better still at higher tempera- 

 tures up to 38° or 40 C. They divide transversely ; after division 

 the two offsprings may remain joined end to end with shape of 

 an S, and by further division they may grow into a spiral-like or 

 wavy form. They grow well in the mucus flakes taken from the 

 intestine, and placed on linen kept in a moist cell ; they grow 

 well on potato, in broth, in Agar-Agar jelly, in solid nourishing 

 gelatine mixtures (gelatine, peptone, and beef extract). In this 

 latter substance they exhibit a peculiar and definite mode of 

 growth not seen by Koch on any other bacteria. The comma 

 bacilli require for their growth an alkaline medium ; they are 

 killed by acid, by drying, and various antiseptic media. 



7. On account of their constant occurrence in the intestines of 

 patients suffering from Asiatic cholera, on account of their 

 absence in all other diseases of the intestine, and on account of 

 their peculiar mode of growth in nourishing gelatine, Koch 

 vindicates for these comma bacilli not only an important 

 diagnostic value, but also considers them as the true cause of 

 cholera. 



8. Since his return to Germany, Koch has convinced himself 

 of the correctness of the observations of Nicati and Rietsch, who 

 maintain thai cholera can tie produced in dogs and guinea-pigs 

 by injecting directly into the small intestine of these animals the 

 comma bacilli taken either directly from the choleraic evacua- 

 tions, or from artificial cultivations. 



Our investigations enable us to say this : 



1. Koch's statement as to tile constant occurrence of comma 

 bacilli in the rice-water stools of cholera patients is correct ; the 

 comma bacilli vary greatly in numbers in different stools and in 

 different cases, in some being exceeding scarce, in others 

 numerous. 



2. I hese comma bacilli vary greatly in length, some being 

 twice and three times as long as others, some well curved as 

 much as to form half a circle, others showing only just a slight 

 bend. The name " comma bacillus " is inappropriate, as in reality 

 they are vibrios. 



3. The comma bacilli occur in the mucus flakes of the rice 

 water stools as well as in those taken from the ileum of a person 



