PATHOGENIC SPIRILLA. 607 
a pellicle, but only gave a slight indol reaction. A portion of the mice in- 
oculated subcutaneously had after a time abscesses, from the contents of 
which Fischer was able to cultivate his vibrio, which he named Vibrio helco- 
genes. Vogler (1893), in an extended series of examinations of faeces, found 
a vibrio which showed many points of resemblance to the cholera vibrio in 
its growth in gelatin. But it constantly gave a negative indol reaction, and 
was not pathogenic for guinea-pigs when injected into the peritoneal cavity. 
Bleisch obtained from the dejecta of a man who died with choleraic symptoms 
abacterium which upon gelatin plates grew at first like the cholera bacillus, but 
was distinguished from it by many points of difference in other respects : 
short rods, sometimes bent, but never showing spiral forms. It gave the 
cholera-red reaction. Wolf (1883) obtained from cervical secretion, from a 
woman suffering from chronic endometritis, acomma-formed bacillus, which 
in its growth on gelatin plates resembled the cholera vibrio. The liquefac- 
tion was, however, much more rapid, a culture a day old being as far ad- 
vanced as a cholera culture of three to four days. The addition of sulphuric 
acid to a bouillon culture caused a faint rose-red color, which upon standing 
changed tobrown. The addition of sulphuric acid and potassium iodide paste 
did not cause a blue color, so there was no formation of nitrites. Bonhoff 
(1893), in water from Stolpe, in Pommerania, discovered two vibrios, one of 
which in the first twenty-four hours grew like the cholera vibrio, but did not 
ive the cholera-red reaction. Out of four guinea-pigs inoculated one only 
ied with cholera-like symptoms. The other vibrio gave the cholera-red reac- 
tion, but did not liquefy gelatin and was very inconstant as regards its patho- 
genic power. Zorkendorfer (1893) isolated a vibrio from the stools of a 
woman who died with choleraic symptoms, which at first grew upon gelatin 
plates like the cholera vibrio, but after the second day liquefied the gelatin 
very rapidly, so that it could no longer be taken for the same. The indol 
reaction was constantly absent, and it was not pathogenic for guinea-pigs, 
rabbits, or pigeons. Blackstein (1853) obtained from the water of the Seine 
a comma bacillus which resembled the cholera vibrio in many particulars, but 
was distinguished by the finer granulation and more opaque appearance of 
its colonies. Sanarelli (1893), by the use of special media, isolated from the 
water of the Seine and of the Marne no less than thirty-two vibrios, four of 
which resembled the cholera vibrio in Came the indol reaction. Three 
others gave the indol reaction after eight days ; the remainder did not give it 
at ail, or only very faintly. The vibrios which upon a first inoculation gave 
no results or only very slight evidence of pathogenic power, when carried 
through a series of animals caused a fatal infection. When a sterilized cul- 
ture of the colon bacillus was injected at the same time death always oc- 
curred. Sanarelli believes that these vibrios must have had a common ori- 
gin—from the dejecta of cholera patients. Fischer (1894) has described a 
number of vibrios from sea-water which are distinguished from the cholera 
vibrio especially by a preference for media containing sea-water. Finally, 
the vibrios found in water, referred to by Koch (‘ Ueber den augenblicklichen 
Stand der Cholera-diagnose,’ Zeitschr. fiir Hygiene, Bd. xiv., page 319), 
belong here. 
Oui te different from these is a second group of vibrios which in their in- 
vestigation offered great and often almost insuperable difficulties for the 
differential diagnosis. Here, first of all, is the Vibrio Berolinensis, found by 
Neisser in August, 1893, and described by Rubner, Neisser, and Giinther. 
This was isolated from water which had previously contained cholera vibrios, 
for which reason Dunbar considers it not impossible that this is a genuine 
cholera vibrio, somewhat changed perhaps by long-continued development 
in water. Neither in its morphology nor in its behavior in gelatin stick eul- 
tures, in milk and other media, could it be distinguished from the genuine 
comma, bacillus; the indol reaction and pathogenic action upon guinea-pigs 
were the same; oni the contrary, a differentiation was easily made in gelatin 
plate cultures. Atthe end of twenty-four hours it formed small, spherical, 
