New theory and old practice in relation to medicine and certain industries : being an analysis of current literature of these subjects / by C.A. Gordon.

  • Gordon, Charles Alexander, 1821-1899.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: New theory and old practice in relation to medicine and certain industries : being an analysis of current literature of these subjects / by C.A. Gordon. 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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    5S mOOULATION FOR CHOLERA. During the prevalence of cholera in Europe, 1853-56 Professor Thiersch inoculated 56 mice with the dejections of persons aifected with that disease; of the animals so inoculated 24 sickened with symptoms of a choleraic sort, and 14 died. {Transact: International Medical Conrjress; 1881, vol. iv, p. 414). Both the German and French Commissions in Calcutta, in 1884, made repeated attempts to communicate cholera to tlie lower animals. Mice, rats, monkeys, pigs, rabbits, guinea-pigs, dogs, cats, fowls, chickens, puppies, and other animals were experimented ou. They were given cholera evacuations and tissues, fresh and dricil, in their food ; fluids containing these substances were injected into their bowels ; cholera- blood was transfused into their veins—in short, every imaginable device was resorted to, but withont success, except in one case in which a fowl, submitted to a diet contaminated with rice-coloured stools, died on the third day of the experiment. Tlie contents oF its intestines contained the particular body which the French Commission considered to be the microbe of the disefi.se. But, although the intestines of this fowl were administered to others, and its blood inoculated into them, no result followed. {Dr. Canieron'ts BeLfotit Address, 1884, p. 8.) [From which it follows that the results of the two sets of experiments here recorded were mutually at variance with each other; the total result of the whole negative in character.] Coidd any species of brute, Dr. Koch added, have contracted cholera, this must have occurred in Bengal, where ciioleraic iufectiomil matter is spread tliroughout the whole year and whole country, and it must have been noticed in a reliable manner. But he could learn of no such observation. With reference to the inquiry and residts now recorded, tlie Indian Medical Gazette, January 1884, remarks that The sole statements in this matter whicii are deserving of attention liave been made by Thiersch, who saw a number of mice get diarrhoea and die after having been fed upon the contents of a cholera-infected intestine. This experiment has been confirmed by Burdon Sanderson, though certainly disputed by others. Monkeys, too, whicli are the only specie°s of animals susceptible to some human diseases, such as small-jiox, were used in these experiments, also dogs and poultry. But in spite of all eflbrtt. these experiments were mthout result.