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78 THE MICRO-ORGANISMS OF THE HUMAN MOUTH.

Oil account of its slow growth on gelatine, its pure culture
from saliva or dentine is connected with many difficulties. Cul-
tures made of microscopically pure material offer nothing re-
markable, as I have stated in a former communication. No
growth occurs on the surface, nor does a liquefaction or evapo-
ration of the gelatine take place. Its identity with the cholera
bacillus is, therefore, quite out of the question. A true spirillum
which possesses much more similarity to the comma bacillus of
cholera asiatica, both morphologically and in the manner of its
growth, I obtained from the human mouth in pure culture some
iive years ago. The isolation of this bacterium was accomplished
in two cases by the use of coagulated beef-blood serum. The

Fig. 20. Fio. 27.

Vf
>^i
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Comma- and S-foems from a Pure Cul-
ture OF A Bacillus found in the Spirillum Forms of the Bacillus
Human Mouth, probably Fink- representf.d in Fig. 26.
ler-Prior Bacillus. 1100:1.
1100 : 1.

material from which the cultures were made was, in each case,
found under the margin of inflamed gums, in unhealthy mouths.
Morphologically, this bacillus is very similar to the other well-
known comma bacilli, occurring as commata, either singly or
in twos (Fig. 26), or in spirillum form (Fig. 27). In old cultures
on gelatine, all the commata sometimes grow out into spirilla,
o-iving a pure spirillum culture. Cultivated on plates of beef-
water-peptone-gelatiiio, at 20° C, they appear after twenty hours
(in the second dilution), under a power of 100 diameters, as per-
fectly round, finely granular colonies, with a smooth border and
brown color; in the same time the first dilution will be com-
pletely liquefied. They liquefy coagulated blood-serum with
great energy, as do the other comma bacilli. On the surface of
ao-ar-agar they form a yellowish coating, and convert the medium,