CHAPTEE XXIII. 



Organisms of interest historically and otherwise, that have been confounded 

 with the spirillum of Asiatic cholera— Their peculiarities and differential 

 features— The vibrio proteus. or bacillus of Finkler and Prior— The srpinUma 

 tyrogenum, or cheese spirillum of Deneke— The spirillum of Miller— The mbrio 

 Metaclmlkovi. 



. VIBRIO PROTEUS (fINKLER-PRIOE BACILLUS). 



Finkler and Prior were the first to contest experi- 

 mentally the significance of the presence of Koch's 

 comma bacillus in Asiatic cholera, claiming to have 

 found it in the dejections of individuals sulFering from 

 other maladies, particularly cholera nostras. The 

 morphological and biological differences between the 

 organism that Finkler and Prior had discovered and 

 those of the comma bacillus described by Koch are, 

 however, so pronounced as to warrant the opinion 

 that the confusion had arisen through imperfect and 

 untrustworthy methods of experimentation. At a some- 

 what later period Finkler and Prior retracted their 

 claims of identity for the two organisms, and held that 

 the bacterium with which they were dealing was pecu- 

 liar to cholera nostras — an opinion which, in the light 

 of subsequent work was also proved to be without 

 foundation in fact. 



The characteristics of the spirillum of Finkler and 

 Prior are as follows : 



Morphology. — It is thicker and longer than the 

 spirillum of Asiatic cholera ; it is often- thicker at the 



