Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/518

 ferent placet, u from gardens, rooms, barracks, sick- chamben, alables, aad out-houBeB. With this dust WM sown neutral bouiUon sterilized by heat, and cooked potato, with Ibe result of finding uany curved bacilli in all the cultures.

3". The curved bacilli do not esist in their charac- teristic fonu in 'atmospheric dust:' they are there present in the germ or spore condition. In (act, if this 'dust' be examined Immediately after (Klutlon with sterilized distilled water, very few curved bacilli can be made out; and these are hardly recognizable as such, being changed in appearance by the developnieiit of one ormore spore* at their ends, or somewhere in the middle of the rod. This sort of change Is precisely what is seen in cultures, If wliat happens In these drops of diluted dust be observed from day to day, the number of curved bacilli will be seen to vastly \n- crease until the third or fourth day, when the spore formation recommenues.

4°. Tbe presence of curved bacilli in water, and of their spores in the air. furnishes a sufficient explana- tion of the presence of these organisms wherever air or water can penetrate.

Intestinal dejections in simple diarrhoea, as well as in dyseDl«ry and Cyph old-fever, broncho-pnlmonary secretions in all diseases of the lungs, from simple catarrh to advanced tuberculosis, pus exposed to the air, the saliva of a sick or well man, — all substances, In fact, which can nourish the germs of bacteria, contain the curved bacilli, and oftentimes in much greater number than the other bacteria, which are also found in such culture-media. The mud of the streets, made up ql dust and water, can also be con- sidered to be a favorable medium in which they are numerous and active.

5°. These micro-organisms are decidedly airobie, and only Sourish on the surface of liquids. Tbey are mobile, moving with the rapid oscillations of vibrios, and very refractive. Tbey are easily colored by methyl violet in watery solution, and, thus stained, show all the described forms, — commas, curves, ome- ga, S, spirals, etc. In general, they are from one-half to two-thirds as long as the bacillus of tuberculosis, but are thicker and less regular than these: In fact, no peculiarity of form or staining distinguishes them from the bacilli found in cholera dejecta. Sowing the bouillon with dust proves that the spores, whose formation was observed as above, are their renling stage : moisture seems to be the condition Indispensa- ble to their perfect development.

i°. Collected first on bouillon or cooked potato, and then cultivated on nutrient gelatine, these curved bacilli form rounded colonies with serrated edges composed of highly refractive granules. These colo- nies, kept at 20<=-2i'> C, grow in the gelatine, and liquefy it, finally producing a colony of the shape of a glove-finger.

7°. Until conclusive inoculation experiments shall be made, proving the pathogenic properties of the curved bacillus of cholera, the conclusion to be reached Is, that these latter are the same as are found in all secretions, norma! or pathological, provided these have come In contact with water, which is the

��normal habitat of curved bacilli, or with air, whi furnishes transportation for the germs.

jThese experiments are exceedingly interesting, but no proof Is offered to show the exact correapondencft of the curved bacilli spoken of. with those of cbolera. Johne's work {Science, June 5, 1885) speaks of the dis- liuctive difference between Eoch'a comma bacillna and that of Finkler and Prior; and this latter will answer to all of the description given tiy Hericouit of the curved bacilli be has observed.]

��In a paper on the effects produced ia man and animals by the ingestion and hypodermic injection of cultures of the bacteria of choleraic diarrhoea (Complex rendas, ISas, HW), are given some imer- esting results obtained by Bochefontaine in cxperi- meuts made with cultures obtained from choleraic diarrhoea in peptonized gelatine.

The first generations were found to liquefy the gelatine with a cup-shaped depression terminated by a deep poinL None of the cultures contained the curved bacillus alone; but always, and in greater number than this, were found rods or spirilla fully developed. There were never found In the culture* the very short, rapidly moving bacteria whicb fUled the watery dlschaiges in cholera. Every successire generation showed an increase in the number of tlM simple ciwed bacilli.

I. The author has on four different occasions allowed pure cultures of the curved bacillus of the third and fourth generation without ill effect.

II, Two adult guinea-pigs were inoculated in cb* flank with a fourth of a centimetre of a mixture of equal parts of water and gelatine containing the cul- ture: both were found dead the next morning. Th« autopsy showed great eSuslon on the iuocujated side and opposite al>dominal wall, with nothing in the 1b- temal organs. Two other guinea-pigs were inoeu* iated with an eighth of a centimetre of the same mixture, and the smaller one died in twenty-four hours, with appearances similar to the first two. Tbtt second showed no symptoms. Microscopic examina- tion of the blood of the three dead animals showed nothing. Tbe same Injection was made in two larger guinea-pigs, with no result.

IlL The experimenter injected three-fourths of A centimetre of the mixture under the skin of his left fore-arm, with the result of mucli oedematous swell- ing and some pain, with deep fiuctuatlon in the re- gion of the puncture, three days afterwards. Black blood obtained from this point showed no bacteria^ either microscopically or upon cultivation.

The inferences that the writer draws are, that ingestion of the cholera microtKS produces no pleasant symptoms; that their hypodermic Injeci will produce local symptcms if in sufficiently dose; and that the blood of man and aiilmalB nni normal conditions will destroy cultures of the baci of choleraic diarrhoea.

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