TEXT-BOOK OF BACTERIOLOGY. 285 



We already know that Finkler and Prior^s communications 

 were originally and openly intended to oppose Koch's discovery, 

 and that they expressed the opinion that the bacteria found in 

 cases of cholera morbus and Koch's comma bacillus were identical. 

 The value of Koch's investigations was most actively disputed 

 in Munich. Emmerich and Buchner published a number of state- 

 ments apparently strong enough to seriously question the signifi- 

 cance of the comma bacillus as the origin of cholera asiatica. 



Emmerich, in 1884, had gone to Naples (at the instance of the 

 Bavarian government) during an extensive cholera epidemic, to 

 gather experience concerning the causes and nature of the disease. 

 He found Koch's bacillus in a number of cases; but he succeeded 

 besides in obtaining from the organs of cholera corpses and from 

 the blood of a cholera patient a new kind of bacterium, in which 

 he thought he had discovered the real cause of the pestilence. 



The cholera poison is, according to Pettenkofer's view, taken 

 up by the lungs. But as the intestines are invariably the seat of 

 the clinical sj'mptoms, there remains only the supposition that the 

 infectious matter gets from one place to another hy waj' of the 

 blood-serum, and must be found there as well as in all internal 

 organs. Koch's comma bacillus did not comply with this demand, 

 and therefore, in the eyes of the Munich school, it lost every claim 

 of originating cholera. 



The Neapolitan bacillus, on the other hand, was free from such 

 a reproach, and adapted itself more willingly to the epidemiological 

 facts. For it was found in the blood and internal organs, and (cer- 

 tainly a very important observation) it could be at once transmitted 

 to animals, especially to Guinea-pigs, and (according to Emmerich's 

 statements) by subcutaneous application as well as by introduction 

 into the abdominal cavity or directly into the lungs, and thus arti- 

 ficially presented a correct picture of the disease and the post- 

 mortem conditions of genuine cholera. 



It is, therefore, desirable to bestow on this bacterium consider- 

 able attention. 



They are small, short rods, with rounded ends, usually occurring 

 singly, rarely in groups and pronounced threads. They are non- 

 motile. An eventual spore-formation can neither be observed in 

 the hanging drop nor be demonstrated by staining; for the bright 

 gap usually seen in the latter case between the two more strongly- 

 colored ends of the rod does not correspond to any form. The 

 bacilli can live for some time in a dry state — for instance, on silk 

 threads. The bacillus belongs to the semi-anaerobic variety and 

 can prosper even when oxygen is excluded. 



