Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/77

 FRIDAT, JANUARY 23, 1885.

��^^H FRIDAT, .IAN

^^B COMMEST AND CRITICISM.

I>R, E. Ray LASRESTKn writes to Nature o( Dec. 25 a letlcr denouuciug Koch's claims in re^rti to the cholera iiacilliis, and denying bis right to atiy more knowledge in regard to bacteria ■' Ihtiii that which an industrious worker may be expected to have gained in the course of very special observationB iu regard to A limited class of these organisms (the pathogenic class), extending over a few years. ' ' Korlunately, Koch's rpputalion rests upon a more solid foundaliou thnu that which is ixtii- ceded to him by some English and American writers, and his work is not likely to lose any of itfl value by accusations of want of knowl- edge. The writer in Natwre gives a very dis- torted diagram of various organisms, — the lacillus of glanders, the bacillus aubtilis, etc., — and lnj-3 especial stress upon the fact lliat Koeh said nothing of the comma bacillus be- fore reaching India, and that in Egypt an entirely distinct and straight organism was dahned as the cause of cholera. Tlils is a ih'stinct accusation, which does not socm to iia to tie justified by Koch's reports. Whilst in Kgypt, the Oerman commission found several organisms, one of which niiglil be the specific t'aus4> of the disease ; but no actual proof of the fact was offered or suggested. It was be- tause they were in doubt, that they asked per- mission to carry on tjieir investigations in India ; and it was only after they had reached that country, and had had opportunities for further investigation, that special stress was laid wpon the comma bacillus. The case, so far OS Koch is i^^ncerned, is summed up in our columus of Dec. 19, 1884. Ilia opponents might well choose an advocate less biassed than Dr. I^nkester. The dts/jroiia/ of Koch's theories must come from actual work upon the subject, and not from literary efforts.

��SCIENCE.

���Later tsepoktb of the work of Drs. Klein and Gihbes (the English cholera commission) in India justify their conclusions more than what we had seen when speaking of it last week. Their results are summed up in the Gazette of India for Nov. 28, 18S4 {Lancet. .Ian. 3, 1886), and arc as follows: l". They find ' comma bacilli.' !W called, in other dis- eases than cholera, a^ epidemic diarrhoea, dys- entery, and intestiiinl catarrh, associated with phthisis, i". They did not find the comma bacilli in typical cases of cholera in any thing like the numbers claimed by KooU : they never approached the appearance of a ^ pare culture ' in the ileum. .1°. They did uotfind the comma bacilli in the tissues of the intestines, or else- where, as Koch did. 1°. Klein was unable to discover that the comma bacilli differed from any other putrefactive organism under cultiva- li^i. 5°. They found peculiar-shaped bacilli, very small and straight, in the muous-corpus- clea found in mucus-flakes removoil from the intestine soon after death from cfaolera: they found these same bacilli always, even when the comma bacilli were not discovered. C. These bacilli do not behave in any peculiar way under cultivation, and are not to be found in the tissues of the intestines, or elsewhere. 7". They did not find any bacteria of any kind in (be blood, or in any other tissue, fi". Many cxperimouts gave the following results: (a) Mice, rats, cats, and monkeys were fed with rice-water stools, with vomitiis, with mucus- flakes from the ileum, both fresh and afler having been kept for twenty-four hours (the animals remained in good health) ; (b) Inocu- lations with recent and old cultures of the comma bacillus, and of the small straight li.acillus, as well as with mucus-flakes, wore made into the subcutaneous tisane, into the peritoneal cavity, into the jugular vein, and into the cavity of the small and large intestine of rabbits, cats, and monkeys: but the ani- mals remained perfectly well and normal.

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