SPIRILLUM OF FINKLER AND PRIOR. 591 
tion increases, and in twenty-four hours more reaches 
the sides of the tube in the upper part of the medium ; 
by the end of the week the gelatin is usually completely 
liquefied. Upon the surface of the liquefied medium a 
whitish’ film is seen. Upon agar there is a somewhat 
more luxuriant growth than with the cholera vibrio; a 
slimy, whitish-yellow layer covering the entire surface 
is quickly developed. Upon polato this spirillum grows 
at the room-temperature and produces a slimy, grayish- 
yellow, glistening layer which soon extends over the 
entire surface. The cholera spirillum does not grow at 
room-temperature, and in the incubator produces a thin, 
brownish layer. Cultures of the Finkler and Prior 
spirillum give off a strong putrefactive odor; in media 
containing sugar, according to Buchner, an acid reac- 
tion is produced as a result of their growth; they do 
not form indol in peptone solutions; and they have a 
greater resistance to desiccation than the cholera spiril- 
lum. The absence of agglutination with a dilution of 
the serum of an animal immunized to the cholera 
spirillum is a valuable differential sign. 
Pathogenesis. When injected into the stomach of 
guinea-pigs, after previous injection of a soda solution 
and opium, the Finkler and Prior spirillum is some- 
what pathogenic for these animals; but a smaller pro- 
portion die from such injections than from those of 
the fresh cultures of cholera. At the autopsy the in- 
testine is pale, and its watery contents, which contain 
the spirilla in great numbers, have a putrefactive odor. 
This organism has been found in the dejections of 
some healthy persons and of persons affected with diar- 
rhea or cholera nostras. It does not seem to have any 
etiological relation, however, with this disease in man, 
