34 
Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
the earlier the onset of sickness and death, so that the latter may 
take place within twenty-four hours. 
It is objected by Klein and Gibbes “that the strongest reason 
for not admitting this kind of bacillar relation to the disease is 
this, that no bacilli exist in the blood or any other tissue of 
patients suffering from cholera” (page 32 of Government Report of 
Cholera Investigation in India), ignoring the fact that the first mani- 
festations of the disease are in the alimentary canal, and are only 
followed by the general constitutional disturbances, while a marked 
departure from the normal condition is met with in the small intes- 
tine and its contents after death. Later, Klein admits that the 
organism is pathogenic in guinea pigs, though it acts from the intes- 
tine, and is not found elsewhere (. Practitioner , March 1887, p. 200). 
So that what he applies to animals he will not allow to be applied to 
man. 
Another of Klein’s objections runs thus — “ If, as many believe, 
the cholera dejecta per se were possessed of infective power, then 
it would be quite impossible to understand how it happens that the 
attendants, nurses, and physicians of cholera patients, those that 
handle the cholera dejecta, the friends and relatives living in the 
same room, remain so often exempt” (. Practitioner , April 1887, 
p. 275). 
In the above passage replace “syphilitic” and “discharges” by 
“cholera” and “dejecta,” and the objection supplies its own answer. 
Of a similar character and weight are his objections based on the 
failure of cholera to spread in certain districts into which it has 
been introduced, the cessation of cholera in certain seasons, &c. 
Summary of Conclusions. 
1. The comma bacillus of Koch is invariably present, and asso- 
ciated with certain changes, in the small intestine in cases of Asiatic 
cholera. 
2. There is no evidence to show that it is a normal inhabitant of 
the human alimentary canal, and therefore no proof for the assertion 
that it is a result of the disease. 
3. The means used to introduce the comma bacillus into, and 
those used to lessen the peristalsis of, the small intestine of the 
guinea pig, cannot be regarded as causing appearances like those of 
