EXPERIMENTS WITH CHOLERA SPIRILLUM. 325 



the organism were injected directly through the walls 

 of the duodenum, demonstrated the fact that the acid 

 reaction of the gastric juice destroyed the cholera 

 organisms and prevented their access to the small in- 

 testine when they had been administered by the mouth ; 

 at the same time it was seen that the interference with 

 the flow of bile diminished intestinal peristalsis, and 

 permitted the organisms to remain for a longer time 

 where they had been deposited. By. this method 

 Nicati and Rietsch,* Van Ermengen," Koch,* and others 

 were enabled to produce in the animals upon which they 

 operated a condition that was, if not identical, at all 

 events very similar pathologically to that seen in the 

 intestine of subjects dead of the disease. 



At a subsequent conference held in Berlin in 1885, 

 Koch* described the following method by means of which 

 he had been able to obtain a relatively high degree of 

 constancy in all his efforts to produce cholera in lower 

 animals : Bearing in mind the point made by Nicati and 

 Rietsch as to the effect produced by the acid reaction of 

 the gastric juice, this reaction was first to be neutralized 

 by injecting, through a soft catheter passed down the 

 oesophagus into the stomach, 5 c.c. of a 5 per cent, 

 solution of sodium carbonate. Ten or fifteen minutes 

 later this was to be followed by the injection into the 

 stomach (also through a soft cathether) of 10 c.c. of a 

 bouillon culture of the cholera spirillum. For the 

 purpose of arresting peristalsis and permitting the 

 organisms to remain in the stomach and upper. part of the 



< Arohiv de Phys. norm, et path., 1885, xvii., 3e B«r., t. vi. Compt.-rend., 

 xcix. p. 928. Rev. de Hygiene, 1885. Eev. de Med., 1885. v. 



2 " Eecherches sur le Microbe du ChoUra Asiatique," Paiis-BruxelleB, 1885. 

 Bull, de I'Acad roy. de M4d. de Belgique, 3e s6r., xviil. 



3 Loc. cit. * Loo. clt., 1885. 



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