Reports and papers on cholera in England in 1893 / with an introduction by the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board.

Great Britain. Local Government Board

Date:: 1894

Credit: Reports and papers on cholera in England in 1893 / with an introduction by the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board. Source: Wellcome Collection.

265/372 page 175

$(6.) Ort;;o<rt^o.—In the paper already refeiTecHo* I have given illuK- ^pp.^ . • trations of the different varieties of cholera comma-bacdli, isolated by Dr. ^b™^^ Cunningham, and I have now to add that the comma-bacilli from the Maieriiial'bub- cases in England, showed the same kind of appearances in their growth ^^|^';t,;|fj°?;,,. on potato. Inoculation of the surface of bits of potato (the potatoes hy^r. Kioin,' were all exactly of the same kind, they were incubated at 37 C.) cou- tiiined in test tubes were made from the various English comma-bacdli, and the result was that they produced in five to six days good, but colourless, growth, except in one case.f in which the growth was brownish, and in other threej in which the growth was faint yellow. (7.) In 3Iilk.~The typical Koch's comma-bacillus, when cultivated at 37° C. in normal alkaline milk previously sterilised, grows copiously, but does not produce any visible alteration in the physical characters of th(i milk; this retains, Koch says, indefinitely its fluid character. When, after two or three days incubation, new subcultures from such milk are estab- lished in the various media, pure crops of the comma bacilli are obtained. In all experiments with the comma bacilli obtained from the English cases, skim milk, sterilised and contained in test tubes, was used as a culture medium, and these tubes were then incubated at 37° C. The results were that, in the majority of instances, comma-bacilli which corresponded in all other respects to Koch's vibrio, were found to possess the power of sooner or later coagulating milk§ (8.) Physiological effects o)i guinea-pigs.—In my Report for 1892- 1893|| I have shown that though Koch's comma bacilli injected in large; doses into the peritoneal cavity, as practised by PfeifEer and HaflPkine, produce acute intense peritonitis and death, tliis action is in no way specific or peculiar to Koch's comma-bacillus. Clinical symptoms and pathological appearances, in aU i-espects similar, are indeed caused by a variety of other microbes, pathogenic and non-pathogenic, e.g., the vibrio of Finkler, the bacillus prodigiosus, the protens, the staphylo- coccus aureus, bacillus coli, and the bacillus of typhoid fever; though for production of fatal result, I had in all instances to inject large doses of agar culture distributed in bouillon into the peritoneal cavity, namely, \-\ the scrapings from a culture tube. Now Koch in the publication, already quoted by me, states that one of the means of identifying his comma bacillus in a given case of disease, is injection of a culture of the organism isolated into the peritoneal cavity of guinea-pigs; and that his bacillus thus injected produces the death of the animal. But seeing that 1 have shown that other comma bacilli (vibrio of Finkler) and various other non-comma shaped bacilli produce exactly the same result, it must be clear that this method of identifying Koch's comma bacilli is of no real value. Moreover, Sanarelli in a recent important paper^ shows that a number of species of comma bacilli isolated by him from various waters in and about Paris have more or less the same pathogenic action on guinea-pigs. Koch also slates that his comma bacillus, on intraperitoneal injection into guinea-pigs, produces the fatal result in very small doses,—a single platinum loop of an agar culture. This statement is, however, to me altogether surprising, since in no single instance * Stevenson and Murphy's Treatise on Hygiene.' t From Leicester. X From Ilkeston. Coton Hill, and Accrington. § Ah for instance, Grimsby 2, Leicester, Retford, Kennington, Croydon, Tividale, Liverpool, Balby, Rawmarsh, IJinjiley, and Keighley. II Report of the Medical Officer for 1892-93 : Appendix B. pages 369-37], IT Annates de I'lnstitut Pasteur, November 1893.$