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Scientific Memoirs by
positive proof that any of the forms of comma-bacilli which have yet been
isolated are capable of giving rise to unequivocal choleraic symptoms, when
introduced into the intestinal tract, and secondly, in the existence of evidence
which may be taken as indicating that the multiplication of comma-bacilli
within the intestinal tract, in place of being the cause of the initial symptoms of
cholera is a consequence of the abnormal condition of the intestinal con-
tents associated with the onset of the disease.
Very many distinct forms of schizomycetes must constantly be gaining
access to the intestinal tract, and, as a matter of fact, we know that the intestinal
contents are normally peopled by innumerable multitudes of such organisms.
Under normal circumstances, however, certain forms are present in vast pre-
ponderance, which can only be due to the fact that the local conditions are
more favourable to them than to their neighbours. But if the local conditions be
profoundly altered, as they certainly are on the onset of cholera, it would be very
strange to find that the alterations were of precisely such a nature as still to place
the previously favoured organisms at an advantage. It is surely far more natural
to conclude that great alteration in any environment should give rise to alter-
ation in the relative prevalence of the various organisms inhabiting it than that
it should leave the latter entirely unaffected. Granted, therefore, such profound
change in the constitution of the intestinal fluids as the choleraic condition i
m - p l i e s , t h e f a c t t h a t c e r t a i n f o r m s o f s c h i z o m y c e t e s s h o u l d m a k e t h e i r a p p e a r a n c e
in them in abnormal abundance is only what might be looked for on a priore
grounds. Comma-bacilli of various kinds are certainly recognisable in varying
numbers in many instances in the intestinal contents apart from the presence of
any diseased condition whatever. Under ordinary circumstances these are, no
doubt, incultivable as such under the conditions in which choleraic commas grow
with ease, but this may be due either to their having been killed or specially mo-
dified in nature during transit along the intestinal tract. Moreover, as we have
already seen, organisms which assume the form of typical comma-bacilli in certain
media, not only frequently assume absolutely different forms in others, but may
undergo more or less persistent physiological modification, so that the mere
absence of commas or of any elements immediately capable of giving origin to
commas in any particular material is no conclusive evidence of the absence of
such organisms in potential form. The possibility thus remains that the great
prevalence of comma-bacilli in choleraic fluids is the consequence, not the cause
of the existence of the latter, and positive evidence in favour of such a view is
not wanting.
Whenever Prior and Finkler had recorded the frequent occurrence of comma
- b a c i l l i , u n e q u i v o c a l l y c l o s e l y r e l a t e d t o t h o s e o c c u r r i n g i n c h o l e r a i c f l u i d s i n
India, in association with cases of so-called cholera nostras in Europe, and when
it had been shown that the association was not an invariable one, this possibility
at once suggested itself, and since then evidence has gradually accumulated