120 SUMMABY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



The delegates conclude that — 



1. Comma-shaped organisms are ordinarily present in the dejec- 

 tions of persons suffering from cholera. 



2. They are not to be found in the blood nor in any of the tissues, 

 including the mucosa of the small intestine when the latter is 

 examined in a fresh condition. 



3. Comma-shaped organisms of closely allied morphological 

 appearance are ordinarily present in different parts of the alimentary 

 tract in health ; are developed to an unusual extent in some of the 

 diseases characterized by hyper-secretion of the intestine ; and there 

 are grounds for assuming that when any predominant form is observed 

 it is in great measure attributable to the nature of such secretion. 



4. The comma-shaped bacilli ordinarily found in cholera do not 

 induce that disease in the lower animals, and there are no real 

 grounds for assuming that they do so in man ; while the circumstance 

 that they have been found in tanks which constituted the ordinary 

 water-supply of adjacent villages unassociated with the presence of 

 the disease, goes to negative any such assumption. 



Dr. Lewis states that, where comparable, his own observations 

 were wholly in accord with those of Drs. Klein and Gibbes ; he has 

 been able to satisfy himself that the alimentary tract in health may 

 even harbour not one only, but certainly two or three comma- 

 shaped organisms; one of these has been cultivated by Dr. Miller 

 of Berlin, and another, also from the mouth, had been cultivated by 

 Dr. Klein ; the latter seems to have the closest possible resemblance, 

 physiological as well as morphological, to the " choleraic commas." 

 He does not doubt but that, sooner or later, means will be devised 

 by which an abundance of the self-same commas would be obtainable 

 from ordinary alvine secretions ; in the case of the monkey this 

 has, indeed, been already effected by Dr. Klein, after ligaturing the 

 ileum and injecting sulphate of magnesia. What is really new about 

 this bacillus is its name and some phases of its natural history ; 

 if a wet and a dry cover specimen of a pure cultivation be made, 

 the former will be found to have its field covered with minute 

 vibrios in a state of great activity, while that of the dry preparation 

 will be characterized by the presence of comma-shaped organisms. 

 The " comma," as ordinarily understood, is but a segment of this 

 vibrio, detached by the drying process. 



In appended memoranda Dr. Aitken remarks that we require a 

 fuller knowledge of microbes — their life-history, their variations 

 under altered surroundings, the biological relations (if any) between 

 pathogenic and septic or infective forms; are the changes brought 

 out by multiplied cultures, biological or chemical, or both? how 

 far are pathogenic forms variable, and is specific functional activity 

 a more or less rapidly acquired variation than morphological modifica- 

 tions ? Prof. Burdon-Sanderson remarks that the existence of comma- 

 bacillus in the intestine does not bear on any practical question 

 relating to the prevention of cholera. Dr. N. Chevers disbelieves in 

 sanitary cordons, and in systems of quarantine, as means of defence 

 from cholera invasions. Dr. Marston thinks that any action based 



