Scientific Memoirs by
Comma-Bacillus is native to India, and that, when it is observed in Europe, it
must have been imported thence. But in India, as in Europe, it has as yet only
been detected in relation to choleraic materials, and it can therefore only be
described as endemic in India, because cholera is of constant occurrence in
certain localities there. Vibrio Proteus is only known in Europe in connection
with Cholera Nostras, but no one will deny that it must be endemic in Europe.
It has, however, just like Koch's Comma-Bacillus, only been detected in relation
to the presence of disease there, and it would really be quite as reasonable to
regard its presence as necessarily the result of importation, as it is to regard
that of Koch's Bacillus as dependent on such a process. The entire evidence
is more in favor of a belief that the detection of both organisms alike is due to
the presence of conditions favoring their multiplication in any locality, rather
than to their importation into it.
When we come to enquire into the grounds for regarding even the group of
Comma-Bacilli as a whole as causally related to cholera, we find them by no
means conclusive. Even among the very limited number of cases of the disease
which have been specially considered here, there was one in which the Comma-
Bacilli can in no sense be regarded as having any close physiological relation to
the species present in association with any of the others, so that the probability
of their possessing identical toxic properties with the latter is reduced to a mini
- m u m . I n a n o t h e r c a s e t h r e e d i s t i n c t s p e c i e s w e r e p r e s e n t s i m u l t a n e o u s l y , a
phenomenon which, of course, is conceivably compatible with their holding a
causal relation to the disease, but which, at the same time, to any one who is
not fully prejudiced in favor of the necessity of such a relation, must appear
to be rather suggestive of a suspicion that the presence of -the Comma-Bacilli is
not the cause of the morbid condition, but that the existence of the morbid con-
- d i t i o n i s t h e c a u s e o f t h e p r e s e n c e o f t h e C o m m a - B a c i l l i . B u t t h i s i s n o t a l l , f o r
there can be no doubt that numerous cases occur which, both in respect of symp
- t o m s a n d m o r t a l i t y , m u s t b e r e g a r d e d a s c h o l e r a i c , b u t i n w h i c h t h e i n t e s t i n a l
contents are devoid of cultivable Commas, or, indeed, of Commas of any kind at all
I have previously pointed out this fact as one which presented itself very promi-
nently to notice during the summer of 1889, and one very striking case occurred
within the following year. This was admitted into the Medical College Hospital,
and in accordance with the symptoms which it presented, classed and treated as
one of cholera, the diagnosis being justified by the course and rapidly fatal termina-
tion which it presented. The evacuations whilst recent presented the outward
aspect of typical choleraic ones, consisting of a clear, greyish watery fluid and
an abundant white deposit. They very rapidly, however, passed on into a state of
highly acid fermentation, during the course of which a considerable amount of
the original deposit rose to the surface and formed a white layer there. On micro-
scopic examination not a trace of the presence of Comma-Bacilli of any kind
could be detected in either fluid or flocculi. The latter consisted of epithelial
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