Medical Officers of the Army of India.
Symptoms.—Vomiting, purging, and suppression of urine.
Characters of the evacuations from which the Comma-Bacilli were obtain-
- e d . — I t c o n s i s t e d o f a d i r t y , g r e y i s h , w a t e r y a l k a l i n e f l u i d , a n d a b u n d a n t , w h i t e ,
powdery deposit. The smell was strong and offensive. Cover-glass prepara-
- t i o n s s h o w e d i tt
o b e f u l l o f s c h i z o m y c e t e s o f v a r i o u s k i n d s , a m o n g w h i c h h a r d l y
any Comma-Bacilli could be recognised, but plate cultivations yielded an abund
- a n t c r o p o f c o l o n i e s w h i c h w e r e a l m o s t a l l o f o n e k i n d , a n d c o n s i s t e d o f C o m m a s .
The elements in this species are morphologically distinguished by their
relatively large size, slight degree of curvature, and bluntness, these characters
presenting themselves with extreme constancy in cultivations in media of any
kind' in which growth occurs at all. They have, moreover, a very marked ten
- d e n c y t o a g g r e g a t i o n . I n m a k i n g c o v e r - g l a s s p r e p a r a t i o n s f r o m c u l t i v a t i o n s o f
all the species of Commas, the procedure which was invariably followed was to
place a drop of freshly sterilised neutral-salt-solution on the cover, and to diffuse
the material removed by the needle point in it by means of gentle friction. In
the case of the present species, even when this is done as thoroughly as possible, it
will be found that no even diffusion of the elements has occurred, but that a
very large number of them remain adherent to one another so as to form dense
little clumps (vide Plate I,fig. I). This peculiarity is of extremely constant
occurrence, and presents itself in connection with materials derived from culti
- v a t i o n s i n a l l t h e o r d i n a r y m e d i a w h i c hh
a v e
b e e n e m p l o y e d . N o t h i n g l i k e i t i s
present in the case of any of the other species here treated of, save in that of
species . The tendency to adhesion of the elements is often very clearly re
-cognisable, even microscopically, if the results of the contact of the needle
point, which conveys the growth, with the fluid on the cover-glass be closely
watched, as in most cases there is very little evidence of any tendency to imme
- d i a t e g e n e r a l d i f f u s i o n , s u c h a s i s s o c o m m o n l y r e c o g n i s a b l e w h e n t h e r e m a i n i n g
species are being dealt with. In many cases the individual elements present
a very distinctly beaded character, and appear almost as if they were composed
of a series of closely associated spherules, and in this state they very closely
resemble those figured and described by Watson Cheyne as sometimes occur
-
ring in cultivations of Koch's Comma-Bacillus. When examined in neutral salt-
solution, many of the rods are found to be motile, but the energy of their move
- m e n t d o e s n o t a p p e a r t o e q u a l t h a t e x h i b i t e d b y c e r t a i n o t h e r s p e c i e s . T h e y
stain very deeply with gentian-violet, and where a thickly-coated cover-glass has
been stained, a certain difference in the tint, as compared with that present in
similar preparations of almost all the other species, is very often recognisable,
the purple having a brownish and less blue tinge than that present in the latter.
A similar difference is sometimes recognisable also, where saffranin is employed
as the staining re-agent, the color in the case of preparations of this species
having a distinct orange tinge, as compared with the purely rosy one of pre--
parations of the other species.
7