Report on the pathology and etiology of Asiatic cholera / as observed in Spain in the summer of 1885, by C.S. Roy, J. Graham Brown and C.S. Sherrington, and in Italy in 1886 by C.S. Sherrington.

  • Roy, Charles Smart, 1854-1897.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the pathology and etiology of Asiatic cholera / as observed in Spain in the summer of 1885, by C.S. Roy, J. Graham Brown and C.S. Sherrington, and in Italy in 1886 by C.S. Sherrington. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    tine, which had been stained by fuchsin after the method de- scribed by Weigert, there were to be seen granules stained red as deeply as the nuclei of the cells of the tissue, but which differed in appearance from the granules which have been pro- duced by the excessive division or breaking up of the nuclei in some specific inflammations. These granules, moreover, were' characterized by having one or two processes from them which were unstained or faintly stained, and which could not there- fore be followed amongst the tissue elements. These granules did not arrest our serious attention until, in a section of the kidney from our fifteenth case, we saw them in a situation which enabled us to trace the course taken by the processes referred to. Lying in the lymph space outside the membrana propria of one of the tubuli contorti were five or six granules of the kind above mentioned, and we were able to see against the clear background the arrangement of the processes attached to them. Some of the granules appeared as swellings either in the course or at the end of a single filament, while others formed nodes from which the filaments branched off. This characteristic structure we were unable to recognize as re- sembling in appearance either the nerves or connective tissue found in the normal or diseased kidney. On trying carefully the various staining methods known to us in which methylene blue is employed, we found that Loffler's solution, followed by weak acids, gave results which were at least fairly satisfactory. With this method of preparation both granules and filaments of the myce- lium-like structure can with care be stained sufl&ciently deeply to enable them to be seen among the tissue elements. When satis- factorily stained with methylene blue there can be no doubt as to the structure referred to being a vegetable parasite of some kind. Having found a staining method fitted to show the existence of this parasite when present in the tissues, we pro- ceeded to search for it in tissues taken from all of our cases seriativi. In all of our twenty-five cases we were able in the mucous membrane of the small intestine to find micro-organisms resembling that above referred to. We found them to differ somewhat in appearance in different specimens, but they were all of the character to be presently described, resembling one another sufficiently to give us no reason for suspecting that we had to do with more than one parasite. Even in those of our