po Neee. 
FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1884. 
COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 
Tue German government has most com- 
mendably recognized the interest of the public 
in the reports made by the leader of the com- 
mission which has been studying the cholera 
in Egypt and India. The letters already so 
promptly published are, of course, merely notes 
of progress sent to the base of supplies ; and 
no detailed and complete report can be expected 
at present. So far as the results have been 
made known, the work of the commission is 
fullof promise. For the cholera, which, by the 
way, is only one of the subjects under investi- 
gation, a bacterium, apparently peculiar to the 
disease, has been found; and its cultivation 
has shown characteristics sufficiently marked 
to render its recognitioneasy. This comma- 
shaped bacillus has not, thus far, been found in 
connection with any other disease of the intes- 
tinal tract, although numerous examinations 
relative to this point have been made; and in 
cholera patients, it was only seen in association 
with the intestinal disturbance, but here inva- 
riably. It has, however, been met with in some 
sources of water-supply in India, in which the 
local infection may have originated. 
It should not be forgotten that this work of 
Koch is no mere lucky guess. Bacteria were 
found by him in material sent to Berlin from 
India; but it was then impossible to decide how 
far putrefactive changes had produced them. 
The commission has now been able to exam- 
ine a goodly number of fresh cases (fifty-two 
dead, and forty sick, from cholera), and thus to 
render the pathogenetic character of the bacil- 
lus exceedingly probable; and yet not a little 
remains to be done to complete the demonstra- 
tion. Unfortunately, no inoculation experi- 
ments have thus far succeeded, owing to the 
remarkable insusceptibility of our household 
No. 66. — 1884. 
animals to cholera; and experiments on our 
own species are not permissible. It is also 
desirable to have more certainty as to the life- 
history of these bacilli, which may reach the 
victim as spores. ‘The fact that they are chiefly 
found in the lower part of the small intestine 
suggests such a development, unless it be due 
to a temporary disablement of the bacillus as it 
passes the Scylla of gastric digestion, and the 
Charybdis of the bile inflow ; the former being 
known to be dangerous, while the latter is 
inferentially so. Should Koch’s conclusions 
prove to be correct (and, of course, corrobora- 
tion by other and independent observers is de- 
sirable, and ought to be comparatively easy), 
then protection against cholera would seem to 
be a pretty simple task, even though its de- 
struction at the fountain-head be impracticable. 
The germs do not appear to be very tenacious 
of life, so that un efficient prophylaxis can be 
readily exercised; and here a sound digestion 
becomes of primary importance for the individ- 
ual. ‘The season of intestinal disturbances is 
upon us, so that the work of the German com- 
mission can readily be supplemented in one 
direction in any of our hospitals. 
TWELVE years ago the thorough-going policy 
of the British admiralty in fitting out the Chal- 
lenger expedition inspired us all with a hope 
that a new kind of governmental policy, in 
support of biological investigation, was being 
inaugurated. American as well as English 
naturalists have therefore been greatly disap- 
pointed, that, since the return of the Chal- 
lenger, the British government has done 
practically nothing to forward marine research. 
The economists of the Manchester school are 
still in the ascendant; and the study of aquatic 
life is evidently to be left, like the hospitals, 
the asylums, the life-saving service, fish-cul- 
ture, and the prediction of the weather, to pri- 
vate enterprise, either individually exerted or 
in combination in societies. 
