Vibrio Choleræ and Other Vibrios. (Observations on 'Water Vibrios', with Special Reference to Their Variation during Storage in Culture Medium and Possible Relationship to Vibrio Choleræ)

Tomb and Maitra (1926) as a result of their investigations concluded that the agglutinable vibrio found in the dejecta of cholera patients, and the non-agglutinable vibrio found in carriers and in natural waters contaminated with human faeces are one and the same organism. They arrived at this conclusion after inseminating tanks* with fresh cholera stools containing large numbers of agglutinable vibrios and examining the water at two-hour intervals. They state that between the 12th and 20th hour all the agglutinable vibrios from the stools had changed to non-agglutinable. d'Herelle, Malone and Lahiri (1930) have stated that inagglutinable vibrios found in nature originated from typical cholera vibrios and suggested that the mutation which they have undergone had been produced by the action of bacteriophage. d'Herelle (1930) in dealing with the epidemiology of cholera has brought forward ample evidence to show that vibrios isolated from convalescent cholera cases are probably avirulent and suggest that this loss of virulence is the result of bacteriophage action.