1^6 BACTERIA. 



we have quantities of albuminoid material which can be 

 rapidly broken up by the action of the bacilli even in the 

 complete, or almost complete, absence of oxygen, which is 

 supposed to rule in the intestinal canal, as a result of which we 

 have the formation of large quantities of toxine and rapid in- 

 toxication. But as they are voided in the dejecta after growth 

 under these conditions, the cholera organisms are more easily 

 destroyed than at any other time or under any other condi- 

 tions. 



It is very significant that in cholera, yellow fever, and typhoid fever, 

 three diseases in which the manifestations are chiefly in the intestinal canal, 

 and in which the evacuations apparently contain the living poison, direct 

 infection from the stools appears to be the exception rather than the rule, 

 and Wood explains this as due, at any rate in part, to the state in which the ' 

 specific organisms associated with these diseases are present in the stools, 

 and are dependent upon the conditions present in the intestinal canal. 

 Should they find their way during this stage into the stomach of the living 

 person they, being more susceptible, would be much more liable to be 

 destroyed by the acid gastric juice, or to undergo attenuation ; but if they 

 are allowed to live outside the body, even for a short time, they become 

 more resistant in character, they multiply more readily, they are less par- 

 ticular about the nature of their food, and consequently they are much more 

 dangerous. 



