Spirillum Schuylkiliensis 627 



Spirillum Schuylkiliensis (Abbott) 



Morphology. — This micro-organism, closely resembling the cholera spirillum, 

 was found by Abbott* in sewage-polluted water from the Schuylkill River at 

 Philadelphia. 



Cultivation. — Colonies.^ — The colonies developed upon gelatin plates very 

 closely resemble those of the Spirillum metchnikovi. 



Gelatin Punctures. — In gelatin puncture cultures the appearance is exactly 

 like the true cholera spirillum. At times the growth is a little more rapid. 



Agar-agar. — The growth on agar is luxuriant, and gives off a pronounced odor 

 of indol. 



Blood-serum. — Loffler's blood-serum is apparently not a perfectly adapted 

 medium, but upon it the organisms grow, with resulting liquefaction. 



Potato. — Upon potato, at the point of inoculation a thin, glazed, more or 

 less dirty yellow growth, shading to brown and sometimes surrounded by a fiat, 

 dry, lusterless zone, is formed. 



Milk. — In litmus milk a reddish tinge develops after the milk is kept twenty- 

 four hours at body temperature. After forty-eight hours this color is increased 

 and the milk coagulates. 



Metabolic Products. — In peptone solutions indol is- easily detected. No gas 

 is produced in glucose-containing culture-media. Acids and coagulating enzymes 

 are formed. The organism is a facultative anaerobe. 



Vital Resistance. — ^The thermal death point is 5o°C. maintained for five 

 minutes. 



Pathogenesis. — The organism is pathogenic for pigeons, guinea-pigs, and mice, 

 behaving much like Spirillum metchnikovi. No JPfeiffer's phenomenon was 

 observed with the use of serum from immunized animals. 



Immunity. — Immunity could be produced in pigeons, and it was found that the 

 serum was protective against both Spirillum schuylkiliensis and Spirillum metch- 

 nikovi, the immunity thus produced being of about ten days' duration. 



In a second paper by Abbott and Bergeyf it was shown that the spirilla oc- 

 curred in the water during aU four seasons of the year, and in all parts of the river 

 within the city, both at low and at high tide. They were also found in the sewage 

 emptying into the river, and in the water of the Delaware River as frequently as 

 in that of the Schuylkill. 



One hundred and ten pure cultures were isolated from the sources mentioned 

 and subjected to routine tests. It was found that few or none of them were iden- 

 tical in all points. There seems to be, therefore, a family of river spirilla, closely 

 related to one another, like the different colon bacilli. 



The opinion expressed is that "the only trustworthy difference between many 

 of these varieties and the true cholera spirillum is the specific reaction with serum 

 from animals immune against cholera, or by Pfeiffer's method of intraperitoneal 

 testmg in such animals." 



In discussing these spirilla of the Philadelphia water Bergey t says : 



"The most important point with regard to the occurrence of these organisms 

 in the river water around Philadelphia is the fact that similar organisms have been 

 found in the surface waters of the European cities in which tiiere had recently 



been an epidemic of Asiatic cholera, notably at Hamburg and Altona 



The foremost bacteriologists of Europe have been inclined to the opinion that 

 the organisms which they found in the surface waters of the European cities were 

 the remains of the true cholera organism, and that the deviations in the morpho- 

 logic and biologic characters from those of the cholera organism were brought 

 about by their prolonged existence in water. No such explanation of the occur- 

 rence of the organisms in Philadelphia waters can be given." 



A number of interesting spirilla, more or less closely resembling that of Asiatic 

 cholera, have been described from time to time. Their variation from the true 

 cholera organism can best be determined by an examination of the following 

 table, though for precise information the student wiU do well to look up the origi- 

 nal descriptions, references to which are given in each case. 



* "Journal of Experimental Medicine," July, 1896, vol. i, No. 3, p. 419. 

 t "Journal of Experimental Medicine," vol. 11, No. 5, p. 535. 

 {"Journal Amer. Med. Assoc," Oct. 23, 1897. 



