62 
VIBRIO CHOLERA. 
REVIEW OF THE WORK OF OTHERS. 
On account of its acid reaction milk is not a suitable medium for 
cholera. 
Van Geuns 1889, showed that 59° C. for one minute, or 54° for 
five minutes, was ample to kill Koch’s comma bacillus. 
Sternberg,^ 1888, foimd that a temperature of 52° C. (125.6° F.) 
was sufficient to kill the Spirillum, cholerx Asiatics^. For details of 
Sternberg’s teclmique see page 48. 
Kitasato,'^ 1889, tested the thermal death point of the cholera 
bacillus in gelatin and found that it required 60° C. for ten minutes 
to Idll this organism vdth certainty, although sometimes it dies at 
50° for fifteen minutes or 55° for ten minutes. Kitasato used eight 
different cultures and made a number of experiments, the results of 
which are brought together in the following table: 
I. 
III. 
VI. 
VIII. 
IX. 
X. 
XII. 
XIV. 
50° C., 5 minutes 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
4- 
+ 
+ 
+ 
50° C., 10 minutes 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
■ + 
+ 
+ 
50° C., 15 minutes 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
- 
+ 
- 
- 
55° C., 5 minutes 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
55° C., 10 minutes 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
- 
+ 
- 
- 
55° C., 15 minutes 
- 
+ 
+ 
- 
- - 
- 
- 
60° C., 5 minutes 
- 
+ 
+ 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
60° C., 10 minutes 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
65° C., 5 minutes 
— 
— 
- 
- 
1 - 
— 
— 
— 
The method used by Kitasato was first to transfer a platinum loop 
of the culture into a test tube containing gelatin which had previously 
been melted. This tube was then introduced into a water bath 
which had been brought up to the temperature required. After the 
time stated, the gelatin tubes were rolled and incubated at 20° to 
22° C. Kitasato found no difference between old and young cul- 
tures of cholera so far as their resistance to heat was concerned, and 
further concluded that no material difference was evident so far as 
the resistance of cholera cultures are concerned against tempera- 
tures of 50° to 60°. 
«Van Geuns; Tiber des Pastenrisiren von Bakterien. Ein Beitrag zur Biologie 
der Microorganismen. Arch. f. Hyg., vol. 9, 1889, p. 369. 
& Sternberg: Manual of Bacteriology, 1892, p. 146, and Report of the Committee 
on Disinfectants of the American Public Health Association, pp. 136, 152. 
(^Kitasato, S.: Die Widerstandsfahigkeit der Cholerabacterien gegen das Eintrock- 
nen und gegen Hitze. Zeit. f. Hyg., vol. 5, 1889, p. 135. 
