ASIATIC CHOLERA. 107 



HuEPPE states that the severe symptoms of cholera can 

 be explained only on the supposition that the bacilli produce 

 a chemical poison, and that this poison resembles muscarine 

 in its action. 



ViLLiERs isolated by the Stas-Otto method from two 

 bodies dead from cholera, a poisonous base which was liquid, 

 pungent to the taste, and possessed the odor of hawthorn. 

 It was strongly alkaline, and gave precipitates with the 

 general alkaloidal reagents. From one to two milligrammes 

 of this substance, injected into frogs, caused decreased 

 activity of the heart, violent trembling, and death. The 

 heart was found in diastole, and full of blood, and the 

 brain slightly congested. However, the presence of this 

 substance in the bodies of persons who have died of cholera 

 does not prove that its production is due to the cholera 

 bacillus. 



PouCHET extracted from cholera stools, with chloroform, 

 an oily base belonging to the pyridine series. It readily 

 reduces ferric as well as gold and platinum salts, and forms 

 an easily decomposable hydrochloride. It is a violent poison, 

 irritating the stomach, and retarding the actioq of the heart. 

 Subsequently, he obtained an apparently identioul substance 

 from cultures of Koch's comma bacillus. 



In 1887, Brieger made a report of his studies on the 

 chemistiy of the cholera bacillus. He used pure cultures on 

 beef-broth (fleischbrei), which \vas rendered alkaline by the 

 addition of a .3 per cent, soda solution. These were kept 

 at from 37° to 38°. After twenty-four hours, cadaverine 

 was found to be present. Older cultures furnished very 

 small quantities of putrescine, but cultures on blood-serum 

 yielded much larger amounts of this base. While cada- 

 verine and putrescine cannot be said to be poisonous, they 

 do cause necrosis of tissue into which they are injected, and 

 their formation by the cholera bacillus may account for the 

 necrotic tissue in tlie intestine in the disease. The lecithin 

 of the beef-broth was slowly acted upon by the germs, but 

 with age the amount of choline increased, reaching its 

 maximum during the fourth week. 

 ' Creatine proved still more resistant to the action of the 



