140 BACTERIOLOGY. 
With sul-| With Inineu-} In dry- | In moist 
phuric | calcium | bator at | room, in| room, 
Desiccation. acid, chloride, 37°, shade, | killed at 
killed at } killed at | killed at| killed at] end of 
endof | endof | endof | endof 
Cholera spirilla .. . 1 day 1 day 1lday 1 day 12 days 
B. of fowl cholera . . 2 days 1% ots 5Bdays | 59 ‘ 
B.typhosus. ....; 41 “ 1 18 days | 64 ‘ 68 “¢ 
B.mallei. .....{| 35 “ 44days | 31 “ 
Diplococ. pneumonie . | 114 ‘ 3L 131 “ 164 * 192 * 
The spirillum of Asiatic cholera is notorious for its 
slight resistance to desiccation; according to the ex- 
haustive investigations of Koch and the above-men- 
tioned observers, its life-duration is only from one to 
five hours, depending upon the method of desiccation 
employed. 
The results of all investigators, however, would seem 
to indicate that the greatest possible care must be exer- 
cised in desiccation experiments to come to any positive 
conclusions; but recently most astonishing results have 
been obtained with regard to many species usually sup- 
posed to be particularly sensitive to desiccation, showing 
that under certain conditions they may retain their 
vitality in a dry state for a very long time. Thus, 
Koch found that cholera spirilla lived only a few hours 
when dry; Kitasato determined their life-duration at 
fourteen days at most; while Berckholz and various 
French observers have found that they may, under 
favorable conditions, live 150 to 200 days. The vary- 
ing results sometimes reported by different observers in 
such experiments may be explained by the fact that the 
conditions under which they were made were different, 
depending upon the desiccator used, the medium upon 
