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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    ■large intestine, kidney, liver, spleen, &c., were placed while the .autopsy was being made. Eegarding the microscopic changes found after death we have jiothing to add to what is already known on the subject. In all of our cases there was thick dark blood in the vessels, the dryness of (the tissues, the very characteristic sticky change in the serous sur- faces, and the ill-defined, patchy, livid colour of the small intestine, which at once struck the eye on opening the abdomen. The intestines contained either the rice-water contents so chai-acteristic of cholera, or contents equally thin, showing comparatively few flocculi. The solitary glands and the Peyer's patches Avere in most cases swollen and of a greyish-white opalescent appearance, but none of our cases showed any ulceration in the small intestine. In one or two cases, however, there were congestion and scattered ulceration in the large intestine. With regard to the morbid histology of cholera, as well as the jnicroscopic appearances of the disease, our observations are fully in accord with the classical description given by Strauss, Roux, iNocard, and Thuiller.* Our cover-glass prejDarations of the intestine—i.e., of the fluid part as well as the mucous flakes—were stained in various ways; Gramme's method, methylene blue, Spiller's purple, and fuchsin .being the principal dyes employed. Much time was occupied in making these preparations, but the results obtained may be stated very briefly. In four or five of our twenty-five cases, dried and .stained films, prepared from the contents of the lower part of the small intestine, showed little besides comma bacilli. In the majority of our cases, however, commas were found only in com- paratively small numbers ; while in six or seven of our cases we were unable to find any comma bacilli in the preparations made. In these latter cases we failed to find any comma bacilli in films prepared from difierent parts of the small intestine. We cannot, of course, say that had our search for the commas in the contents of the intestines in these cases been still more extensive, commas would not have been found. We can only say we spent much time in examining the films from tjiese cases, and have no hesitation in saying that comma bacilli, if present, must have been in very small number in proportion to other micro- * Archives de la Fhyaiol. Normalc et JPathoI. 1884.