June 5, 1S85.] 



SCIENCE. 



455 



passing rapidly through alcohol and oil of cloves, 

 well drying with pressure of blotting-paper folded 

 four times, and mounting in Canada balsam. In its 



Fig. 2. — Culture or Koch's comma bacillus of cholera 



IN NUTRIENT GELATINE. 



a, second day; b, fourth day. 



biological characteristics, Koch's bacillus differs from 

 that of Finkler and Prior, as will be seen from the 

 following table : — 



Koch's bacillus. 



Plate-culture. — Colonies 

 faintly golden red; irregular, 

 indented margins. 



Tube-culture.— Fig. 2, punc- 

 ture in nutrient gelatine. Liq- 

 uefaction commences slowly 

 at upper part of needle-tract; 

 forms a funnel-shaped excava- 

 tion enclosing a bubble of air; 

 lower part of needle-tract re- 

 sembles a white thread, and 

 remains so for several days. 



Surface-c ulture. — ( Agar- 

 aear). Forms semi-transparent, 

 white plaque; liquid at bottom 

 of oblique surface ; becomes 

 milky. 



Potato -culture. — Only grows 

 at temperature of the blood 

 (37° C), forming a transparent, 

 slightly brownish layer. 



Finkler's bacillus. 



Plate- culture. — Colonies 

 liquefy gelatine much more 

 rapidly ; faint, brownish-yellow 

 tinge ; larger and rounder mar- 

 gin, well defined. 



Tube-culture. — Fig. 3, punc- 

 ture in nutrient gelatine. Liq- 

 uefaction more rapid; extends 

 along whole length of needle- 

 tract, and forms a conical, 

 misty culture, gradually resem- 

 bling the finger of a glove 

 turned inside out. 



Surface-culture. — (Agar- 

 agar). The same forms much 

 more quickly ; and in addition, 

 after a certain time, a character- 

 istic coffee-colored stratum ap- 

 pears at the bottom of the liq- 

 uid. 



Potato-culture. — Crows at 

 ordinary temperature; culture 

 brown, with whitish margin. 

 Surface of potato appears cor- 

 roded. 



Babes and Crookshank have examined over one 

 hundred pure cultures of Koch's bacilli of various 

 ages and on various media. The round bodies fre- 

 quently found, either alone, or accompanying fila- 

 mentous and irregular spirilliform developments of 

 the comma bacilli, were found in all cases to be per- 

 fectly sterile. At the recent meeting at Munich, 



von Pettenkofer and Emmerich bitterly opposed 

 Koch's conclusions, and asserted that his bacillus had 

 never been found in the mucous membrane of the 

 intestine. The drawing here given, taken from a 

 section of intestine of a patient who died of Asiatic 

 cholera, and prepared by Babes and Crookshank, — 

 a preparation which I have seen many times, — is 

 rather damaging to the Munich school. 



I have several cultivations of the Finkler. Prior, 

 and Koch bacilli under observation, and the biologi- 

 cal and morphological characteristics of each are dis- 

 tinct and sharply defined. 







1 





Fig. 



— Culture of Finkler and Prior's comma bacillus 

 of cholera nostras in nutrient gelatine. 



a, second day ; b, fourth day. 



Raptchievski (Wratch., 1885, No. 7) reports an in- 

 teresting case from St. Petersburg. A microscopic 

 examination of the dejections showed, 1°, long and 

 narrow bacteria, as found by Bienstock {Zeitschr. 

 klin. med., vol. viii.) in normal fecal matter, such 

 as produce putrefaction in albuminous matter; 2°. 

 chains of oval micrococci, similar to the microbes 

 found by the French commission {Archives de physi- 

 ol., 1884, No. 4, pi. 11, fig. 6); 8°, a bacillus exactly 

 similar to that described by Koch; 4°, another in 

 greater quantity, found by Finkler and Prior in 

 cholera nostras. Hokatio R. Bigelow, M.D. 



Berlin, Germany, May 5. 



The reddish-brown ring around the sun. 



The ring of reddish-brown color surrounding the 

 sun, and enclosing a disk of glowing whitish light, 

 to which Prof. G. H. Stone called attention in Science 

 for May 22, p. 415, has been most carefully studied 

 by Kiessling of Hamburg, who has shown clearly 

 that it is due to diffraction on minute particles sus- 

 pended in the air. Careful observers agree that it 

 was not seen before November, 1883; but since then 



