Passing to speak of the microscopical character of the contents of the bowel, Dr. Koch said that owing to the sanguinolent and putrescent character of these in the cases first examined, no conclusion was arrived at for some time. Thus he found multitudes of bacteria of various kinds, rendering it impossible to distinguish any special forms, and it was not until he had examined two acute and uncomplicated cases, before hæmorrhage had occurred, and where the evacuation had not decomposed, that he found more abundantly the kind of organism which had been seen so richly in the intestinal mucosa. He then proceeded to describe the characters of this bacterium. It is smaller than the tubercle bacillus, being only about half or at most two-thirds the size of the latter, but much more plump, thicker, and slightly curved. As a rule, the curve is no more than that of a comma (,) but sometimes it assumes a semicircular shape, and he has seen it forming a double curve like an S, these two variations from the normal being suggestive of the junction of two individual bacilli. In cultures there always appears a remarkably free development of comma shaped bacilli. These bacilli often grow out to form long threads, not in the manner of anthrax bacilli, nor with a simple undulating form, but assuming the shape of delicate long spirals, a corkscrew shape, reminding one very forcibly of the spirochaete of relapsing fever. Indeed, it would be difficult to distinguish the two if placed side by side. On account of this developmental change, he doubted if the cholera organism should be ranked with bacilli; it is rather a transitional form between the bacillus and the spirillum. Possibly it is a true spirillum, portions of which appear in the comma shape, much as in other spirilla--_e. g_., spirilla undula, which do not always form complete spirals, but consist only of more or less curved rods. The comma bacilli thrive well in meat infusion, growing in it with great rapidity. By examining, microscopically, a drop of this broth culture the baccilli are seen in active movement, swarming at the margins of the drop, interspersed with the spiral threads, which are also apparently mobile. They grow also in other fluids--_e. g_., very abundantly in milk, without coagulating it or changing its appearance. Also in blood serum they grow very richly.