Micro-organism of diphtheria with experimental results in animals / by Albert Wilson.

  • Wilson, Albert, 1854-1928.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Micro-organism of diphtheria with experimental results in animals / by Albert Wilson. 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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    Reprinted from the ' Transactions of the Pathological Societt/ of London,' 1891. Micro-organism of diphtheria with experimental results in animals. Diphtheria, according to Dr. Thorne, is increasing, and is the universal enemy of mankind. It attacks the rich and noble as freely as the poor and humble, and it draws no distinction between the strong and the weak. The high mortality caused by diphtheria demands the closest study as to treatment. The scientific treatment must have as basis a clear and accurate knowledge of the pathology. The first stumbling-block in the pathology of diphtheria is absence of definition. There are many cases in which it is difficult to prove, but impossible to deny, that they are diphtheria. To overcome this difficulty we resort to the term diphtheritic, using it in a self-contradictory sense to mean not diphtheria, but something like it. The word diphtheritic so commonly used, as, for instance, in scarlet fever throat, corre- sponds to a counterfeit coin. If a throat is diphtheritic it is true diphtheria, even if in a mild form. If it be not true diphtheria, it is not diphtheritic. Instead of suggesting a strict definition of diphtheria, I will con- fine myself strictly to my subject. Loeffler, Klebs, and others have isolated a bacillus which they consider the cause of this disease. But their inoculation experi- ments have, so far as I know, not produced definite results. Oertel considered the specific organism as cocci, for he found them in sections of the internal organs. Klein has, however, superseded all other observers with a series of elaborate experiments, and proves another bacillus than that one of Loeffler and Klebs to be the true diphtheria bacillus. I will call this the Klein bacillus. Klein has furnished the Government with a full report of his investigations. As my results are different, I must briefly recapitulate his research with slight criticism. In Section A, Klein describes cover-glass specimens of diphtheritic membrane, obtaining thereby abundantly his special germ. My By Albert Wilson, M.D., Leytonstone.