It has been maintained principally by a professor of Munich, who, to test this very fact-whether the cholera bacillus alone is capable of producing cholera, or whether this predisposition is necessary- obtained from Paris some of the cholera bacilli which were virulent and active, and demonstrated it by a great many careful experiment on animals that died from it. He, a man seventy-five years of risked his own life by swallowing thousands of these cholera microbes and he is alive now.
I think it is a very fair demonstration although many objections have been made-that the bacilli might not have been virulent, that they had not been properly tested before being swallowed-but there are not many of us who would undertake such a dangerous experiment, especially as Koch has asserted that the bacillus is present in every genuine case of cholera. The interesting papers which Dr. Bojanus has given me throw some light on the subject, showing under what conditions the public health may be so impaired and predisposed to general epidemics, and especially to cholera. That is the sum and substance of the subject upon which our venerable friend wanted to talk to you, and I have done we well as I could in his name, and beg your pardon if I have inadequately represented the subject.
