Report on the nature and import of certain microscopic bodies found in the intestinal discharges of cholera. Presented to the Cholera Committee of the Royal College of Physicians ... by their sub-committee, on the 17th October, 1849 / [By W. Baly and W.W. Gull].

  • Royal College of Physicians of London. Cholera Committee.
Date:
[1849]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the nature and import of certain microscopic bodies found in the intestinal discharges of cholera. Presented to the Cholera Committee of the Royal College of Physicians ... by their sub-committee, on the 17th October, 1849 / [By W. Baly and W.W. Gull]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    h. Lastly, I have occasionally seen in the rice-water fluid and its sediment, colourless, transparent vesicles, varying from 1-3000th to 1-1000th of an inch in diameter, and presenting, when focused at their middle, a brilliant, but very fine, double outline. They are destroyed by desiccation, and, after a few days, disappear from the fluid which at first contains them. They are distinct from any of the bodies previously noticed, but resemble some which I have seen in the fresh urine passed after the stage of collapse. In conclusion, I may state that, whatever be the nature and meaning of the bodies described in section f which are probably introduced from without; and of those in section h, which perhaps are formed as the accompaniments of a particular state of the fluid in which they are contained, I can trace no specific relations between these and any other series of the Cholera bodies; nor does there at present appear to me to be satisfactory evidence of the existence of any living organism, animal or fungoid, actively de¬ veloping itself, and multiplying in the interior of the alimentary canal, in cases of malignant Cholera. The foregoing observations apply entirely to the objects seen in the intestinal discharges. My examination of the matters vomited, in four instances, has led to merely negative results. In five cases, in which both serum and clot of the blood were examined, no annular bodies of any kind were found. I have the honour to be Your obedient servant, John Marshall. To the Cholera Committee of the College of Physicians. Postscript.—In a case of typhoid fever and Pneumonia, I find in the bile contained in the full bladder, three days after death, small, roundish, fatty masses, having a bright rim and double outline; the largest having, moreover, a curled margin. The observation affords additional evidence of the proneness of fat to assume such form, and suggests the possibility of the bile being concerned in the formation of the “bodies” described in Section a of this letter. I. M —October 29th. London; Richards, Printer, 100, St. Martin’s Lane.