November 13, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



439 



ANTI-CHOLERA INOCULATION. 



DuEmG the past summer the public has been 

 made aware, through the medium of the news- 

 papers, that a certain Dr. Jamie Ferran, hitherto 

 unknown to fame, professes to have discovered a 

 safe and certain method of securing immunity 

 against Asiatic cholera by a process analogous to 

 vaccination. 



As most people know, the researches of Pasteur, 

 Koch, and others, have, within the last few years, 

 made it seem extremely probable that the whole 

 class of contagious or zymotic diseases is the 

 direct result of the growth m the body, and partic- 

 ularly in the blood, of certain exceedingly minute 

 micro-organisms called bacteria. Each of these 

 diseases is supposed to be caiised by its own pe- 

 culiar species of bacterium, and the course of the 

 disease is understood to end when the supply of 

 the peculiar element necessary to the growth of 

 these bacteria is exhausted. If this element is 

 one that cannot be reproduced, the disease cannot 

 recur ; and if by any means we can remove this 

 element, and keep it removed, we can prevent the 

 attack of the disease. This is what has been done 

 in case of smaU-pox, and this is what Dr. Ferran 

 claims to have done in case of cholera. 



In consideriag the truth or falsity of this claim, 

 three questions arise : First, Is cholera caused by 

 the growth of micro-organisms ia the body, and, 

 if so, is it possible that the element necessary to 

 their existence can be removed ? Second, By what 

 means does Dr. Ferran claim to have removed this 

 element ? Third, What has been his success ? 



From the researches of Koch and others, it does 

 seem probable that Asiatic cholera is caused by the 

 growth of the comma bacillus in the uitestinal 

 tract and in other parts of the body ; for it has 

 been shown that this bacillus is always present 

 when cholera is present ; that it is never found in 

 the body unless cholera is present ; and that in aU 

 probability its injection into the intestine would 

 cause the appearance of cholera. ^ But there seems 

 to be little reason to suppose that the element of 

 the body which constitutes the proper food of the 

 comma bacillus can be, at least permanently, re- 

 removed ; for one attack of cholera affords no 

 immunity against a second. In justice to Dr. 

 Ferran, however, it should be said that he only 

 claims that his system affords temporary pro- 

 tection. 



The means by which this protection is said to be 

 secured are as follows : By methods only known 

 to the discoverer, the comma bacillus is so culti- 



1 It seems probable that, in Dr. Klein's experiments to 

 show the harmless nature of the comma bacillus, his 

 methods of cultivation had rendered the organisms innoc- 

 uous. 



vated that its spores are produced. From these 

 spores, which are capable of enduring conditions 

 that would prove fatal to the bacilli themselves, 

 mulberry-like masses form, and these masses, in 

 turn, give birth to a generation of true bacteria. ^ 

 By introducing into the circulation a small quan- 

 tity of hquid containing these spores, mulberry- 

 like masses, bacilli, etc., it is said that those 

 elements on which the comma bacillus feeds can 

 be removed from the blood without much con- 

 stitutional disturbance, thus securing immunity 

 against an attack of cholera until these elements 

 can be renewed. 



But, to say nothing of the suspicious secrecy 

 with which all this process is surrounded, it seems 

 certain, from the reports of those who have sought 

 to investigate or repeat Dr. Ferran's experiments, 

 that he is entirely ignorant, or at least careless, of 

 the nice technical details necessary to success in 

 the study of bacteria, and that his so-called spores 

 are sterile and disorganized products,^ and therefore 

 incapable of exerting any salutary effect as an 

 anti-cholera inoculation. 



The results obtained by Dr. Ferran in his experi- 

 ments are more difficult to criticise than either of 

 the preceding questions ; for almost aU that is 

 known about these results is what he has chosen 

 to tell, and his personal equation, so to speak, is 

 an unknown quantity, unless it can be inferred 

 from the character of a man who acknowledges 

 himself willing to keep secret a certain means of 

 securing safety from the attacks of a disease like 

 Asiatic cholera, for the simple reason that he has 

 not yet secured a suitable pecuniary reward. 



His method of procedure seems to be about as 

 follows : From twenty to fifty francs are first 

 collected from the person who is to be inoculated. 

 Then about one-half a cubic centimetre of the 

 inoculating fluid is injected deeply into the outer 

 and back part of the upper arm by means of a 

 common hypodermic syringe. The results of this 

 injection are, according to Dr. Ferran, local pain 

 and swelling and slight constitutional distiu'bances, 

 — fever, diarrhoea, etc., — all passing off in from 

 twelve to twenty-four hours. Tliis is followed by 

 a re-inoculation at the end of about eight days, the 

 same quantity of virus being injected subcutane- 

 ously. The patient thus treated is said to be safe 

 from an attack of cholera for a considerable length 

 of time. 



Some of those who have visited Spain during 

 the past year to investigate these experiments con- 

 firm these statements ; '•' others say * that deep 



1 Zeitschr. klinisch. med., ix. 361-373. 



2 Virchow, Deutsch. med. wochenschr., xi. 342. 



3 Van Ermingem, Deutsch. med. wochenschr., xi. 498. 



4 Brit. med. journ., June 9, 1885. 



