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Scientific Memoirs by
of this nature presented itself in Calcutta during the course of 18 92 in connection
with a violent and fatal outbreak of disease which occurred on board the ship
Crofton Hall,a n d w h i c h w a s c l e a r l y t r a c e d t o t h e i n g e s t i o n o f d e c o m p o s i n g m e a t .
The phenomena showed an unequivocal coincidence between the employment
of certain meat, and the occurrence of cases of the disease, and both the author-
ities who investigated the history of the outbreak and those who treated some
of those suffering from it came to the conclusion that the case was one of acute
ptomaine-poisoning.* Several cases of the disease were under treatment in the
General Hospital, and samples of the intestinal discharges derived from them
were submitted to me for examination. The material obtained from one of
these cases, which otherwise was indistinguishable from any of the others was
characterised by the presence of innumerable comma-bacilli, which not only
presented a general morphological similarity to those occurring in connection
with cholera, but, like these, were readily cultivable in agar-agar and gelatine
m e d i a , a n d i n b o u i l l o n ; t h e g r o w t h i n n e u t r a l i s e d a g a r - a g a r m e d i a o c c u r r i n g b o t h
superficially and interstitially, that in gelatine being attended by gradual solu-
tion of the medium and that in bouillon giving rise to the decompositions on
which the appearance of cholera-purple on the addition of acids depends. Here,
then, we have the appearance of comma-bacilli, certainly closely allied to those
occurring in connection with cholera, in the intestinal contents of a case
of ptomaine-poisoning, and of poisoning which was clearly not dependent on
their presence, seeing that this was not a feature common to all the cases of the
disease, but a peculiarity in an individual one, and that the brine in which the
poisonous meat had been immersed, although containing various kinds of
schizomycetes, was entirely free of any comma-bacilli. The commas which
were obtained in this case have now been kept under continuous cultivation for
more than a year, and the results have been to show that this non-choleraic form
differs much less conspicuously from certain of the choleraic ones, than certain
members of the choleraic group differ among themselves.
The following description, arranged on the same lines as those of the
various choleraic commas, shows the characters of the growth of this form in
various media :—
Form o ( =non-choleraic).
1. Growth in neutralised agar-agar media.— O c c u r r i n g r a p i d l y b o t h s u p e r f i c i a l l y
and interstitially ; the superficial growth almost invariably highly tenacious or ropey in
consistence ; elements, as a rule, of very small size, and frequently deficient in curvature,
so as closely to resemble those of form η.
2. Growth in non-neutralised agar-agar media.— Purely superficial; somewhat
retarded, especially as regards horizontal extension, so that it for some time forms a
limited but prominent patch around the site of inoculation.
* Report on the outbreak of cholera in the sailing vessel Crofton 'Hall, by Dr. W. Forsyth, Health
Officer of the Port of Calcutta, and Dr. W. J. Simpson, Health Officer of Calcutta.