Medical Officers of the Army of India.
5
Another plate-cultivation, containing 1. C. C., was set six days after the
commencement of the experiment. After a period of twenty-four hours it
was found to be crowded with colonies. The majority of them were prominent
and yellowish, and clearly not composed of commas. A few blue ones were,
however, also present. The smell of the cultivation was faint and of a some
- w h a t s p i r i t u o u s c h a r a c t e r . T w o p r e p a r a t i o n s w e r e m o u n t e d , o n e f r o m o n e o f
the yellow colonies and the other from a blue one. The former contained short
oval rods, the latter comma-bacilli.
Another cultivation, again containing 1. C. C. of the water, was set two days
later. After forty-eight hours it contained an abundance of prominent ochre-
tinted colonies and a few small flattened bluish ones. It was devoid of smell
Six preparations were mounted. Those from yellow colonies consisted of short oval
rods and micrococcoid bodies, those from blue ones contained short, thick, straight
r o d s . N o c o m m a s w e r e p r e s e n t i n a n y o f t h e m .
Eighteen days after the beginning of the experiment another cultivation,
containing 1. C. C. of water, was started. Two days later it contained a con
- s i d e r a b l e n u m b e r o f l a r g e c o l o n i e s o f v a r i o u s k i n d s . T h e s m e l l w a s v e r y f a i n t
and slightly acid. Six preparations were mounted, and one of these was found
to contain small commas.
Seven days later—25 from the beginning—a similar preparation was set. In
the course of 48 hours a considerable number of bluish and yellowish colonies
had made their appearance. Six preparations were taken from bluish colonies,
as the others were clearly not composed of commas. All of them were composed
of long filaments, built up of straight rods.
Thirty-one days from the beginning of the experiment another cultivation
was set as before. A limited number of colonies made their appearance in it.
Some of these were large, prominent, and yellowish; others were smaller and of a
pale bluish tint. The yellowish ones consisted of diplococci, the bluish ones of
filaments similar to those present in the previous cultivation.
Finally, forty-seven days after the inoculation of the water, another culti
-vation was started, containing as before 1 C. C. of the water. Hardly any colo
- n i e s a p p e a r e d i n i t . I t h a d a f a i n t b u t n o n - c h o l e r a i c o d o u r , a n d n o c o m m a s c o u l d
be detected in it.
EXPERIMENT V.—Another litre of water from the same polluted tank was
placed as in the previous experiments and 1 C. C. of salt solution full of commas
from a cultivation of ninety-six hours' growth added to it. Nine days later a plate-
cul t i vat i on, cont ai ni ng 1 C. C. of t he wat er , was s et . I t became cover ed by an
almost continuous stratum of a bright yellow colour, and the smell was faint and
non-choleraic. Preparations taken from it contained micrococci and several
forms of straight Bacilli, but no commas were to be found. Nineteen days after
the commencement of the experiment another similar cultivation was started. It
produced numerous concrete colonies and a large diffused gelatinous patch of