154 



Dr. E. Klein. On the 



[Feb. 5, 



Februarg 5, 1885. 



THE TREASURER in the Chair. 



The Presents received were laid on the table, and thanks ordered 

 for them. 



The following Paper was read : — 



I. " The Relation of Bacteria to Asiatic Cholera." By E. 

 Klein, M.D., F.R.S., Joint Lecturer on General Anatomy 

 and Physiology at the Medical School of St. Bartholo- 

 mew's Hospital, London. Received January 28, 1885. 



I propose to bring before the Royal Society the results of an 

 inquiry into the etiology of Asiatic cholera, undertaken, at the 

 instance and expense of the Secretary of State for India, by myself, 

 Dr. Gibbes, and Mr. Alfred Lingard while in India. This investiga- 

 tion will be published in extenso by the India Office, but permission 

 has been granted to us to bring to the notice of the Society some of 

 the more important points of our inquiry, particularly those regarding 

 the relation of bacteria to Asiatic cholera. I shall supplement them 

 by giving the results of further observations which I have made since 

 my return from India. 



As is now well known, Dr. Robert Koch, in an extensive inquiry 

 into the etiology of cholera in Egypt, Calcutta, and in France, 

 1883-84, undertaken by him, Drs. Gaifky and Fisher, at the instance 

 of the German Government, has arrived at certain conclusions, which 

 briefly stated are these : 



1. In all persons suffering from Asiatic cholera there occur in the 

 rice-water stools during the acute stage of the disease certain well- 

 characterised bacteria, which, on account of their curved shape, Koch 

 called " comma bacilli." 



2. These comma bacilli are mobile rods, of small size, of about the 

 same thickness as tubercle bacilli, but only of half their length ; they 

 are always more or less curved, sometimes as much as to form half a 

 circle ; they vary in length according to the state of growth ; they 

 occur either singly or in couples, in the latter case arranged like 

 an S. 



3. The comma bacilli occur in great numbers in the mucus flakes 

 as well as in the fluid of the choleraic evacuations. They occur in the 

 lower part of the ileum of persons dead in the acute stage almost to 



