^xiii.] Astatic cholera. i6i 



Nicati and Rietsch and van Ermengem avoided the passage of 

 the stomach and introduced the Spirillum by injection directly 

 into the small intestine. In van Ermengem's experiments the 

 Spirillum, which had been cultivated in meat-broth or serum, 

 was injected into the duodenum of some guinea-pigs, eleven in 

 number, in small quantities, — a single drop or a much smaller 

 portion of the fluid. Of the eleven, one died soon after the 

 operation, nine in two to six days after infection ; the eleventh, 

 which had received ' about one-fiftieth of a drop,' recovered after 

 a short illness. 



The phenomena of the disease and the state of things as 

 shown by dissection corresponded, according to van Ermen- 

 gem's account, in all essential particulars with those of Asiatic 

 cholera, making the necessary allowance for the difference 

 between the human being and a guinea-pig. The Spirillum 

 vegetated abundantly in every case in the intestine of the infected 

 animal, either pure or mixed with other Bacteria. A drop of 

 fluid containing the Spirillum from the intestine of the animal, 

 communicated the same form of disease to sound animals when 

 injected into their duodenum. Lastly, when fluids containing 

 other Bacteria were injected into the duodenum as a test- 

 experiment, no cholera-symptoms appeared, and usually no dis- 

 turbance of the ordinary health. 



I have here put these experiments in the front place, because 

 they could be most simply and briefly described. Other ob- 

 servers, Koch especially and Doyen, obtained the same positive 

 result by introducing the Spirilla with food after the acidity of 

 the contents of the stomach had been neutralised by an alkaline 

 fluid, and further by increasing the predisposition of the animals 

 for the infection by administering opium and alcohol, in accord- 

 ance with an observation of Koch's. I must limit myself here 

 to these few remarks in proof of the success of the attempts to 

 communicate the infection, and refer to the special literature for 

 further details. 



It appears from the accounts which we possess that the 



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