The Results of continued Study of Various Forms of Comma-
Bacilli occurring in Calcutta.

BY

BRIGADE-SURGEON LIEUTENANT-COLONEL D. D. CUNNINGHAM,
F.R.S., C.I.E.

     It is now more than three years since I drew attention to the fact that
cholera in Calcutta is not invariably characterised by the presence of any
cultivable comma-bacilli in the intestinal contents, and that, even in those
cases where such organisms are present, they by no means invariably present
the characters of those described by Koch and ordinarily accepted as true
choleraic bacilli, but differ greatly in different instances both as regards their
morphological and physiological properties. The strangely implicit faith which
at that time was almost universally yielded to the finality of Koch's statements
and theories prevented these observations from producing any appreciable
impression, and even a year later, when full details were published in this
periodical regarding the subject, they were received either with entire incredu-
lity or by an attempt to force them into agreement with the requirements
of the theory. The history of the evolution and acceptance of the theory are
equally curious; the haste and confidence with which results of a few weeks'
observations were assumed to afford sufficient grounds for the most sweeping
generalisations and the wonderfully implicit faith with which the latter were as
a rule adopted being equally phenomenal. The practical results of the theory
and its acceptation, as we now know, can hardly be regarded as very satis-
factory either for the community at large or for the judgment of its adherents,
consisting as they have done in errors in diagnosis and failure to recognise
the presence of local epidemics of cholera until they have attained unmanage-
able proportions. Had the diagnosis of cholera in Hamburg last summer
not been delayed until 85 cases and 36 deaths had occurred because of the
belief that the disease must be accompanied by Koch's comma-bacillus, the
epidemic might never have attained the appalling magnitude which it ulti-
mately did, and had the medical profession in Berlin not been possessed by a
blind faith in the theory, we might have been spared the curious spectacle
which they furnished by their refusal to admit that any cases of disease,
however otherwise indistinguishable in symptoms and mortality they might be,
were of a truly choleraic nature, unless they conformed to Koch's dicta.

     As I have had ample opportunities for continuing the study of the
subject since I last published anything regarding it, and as the results have

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