Report of investigations into the pathogeny of diphtheria / conducted by Edward Curtis and Thomas E. Satterthwaite.

  • Curtis, Edward, 1838-1912.
Date:
[1877]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of investigations into the pathogeny of diphtheria / conducted by Edward Curtis and Thomas E. Satterthwaite. 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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    c. Inoculation of cornea and muscular tissue with aqueous infusion of membrane, boiled. Experiment 15 : April 14, 1875. Both cornece and one thigh were inoculated with the foregoing infusion after it had been boiled for three minutes. No recognizable effect followed. d. Inoculation of cornea and muscular tissue with aqueous infusion of membrane, filtered. Experiment 16: April 14, 1875. Both cornea; and one thigh were inoculated with the infusion of “ b ” after filtration through a single thickness of filtering paper. Death forty-five hours later. Autopsy: Small whitish spot in the muscular substance at the site of the thigh inoculation ; striae obliterated in the circumjacent muscular fibres, and numerous rows of fat globules developed. After soaking the fibres in 10 per cent, caustic potassa for twenty-four hours, the sarcous matter and fat globules both wholly dis- appeared. Nothing abnormal to be found in any other part of the body. Corneae entirely healed. (N B.—This animal was one of a litter of young rabbits, others of which, not subjected to experimentation, died at about the same time.) Case V. April 23, 1875, received from Dr. George W. Rachel a piece of diphtheritic membrane removed the same day, and wrapped in moist rag and enveloped in rubber tissue. The case was that of a boy three and a half years old, whom Dr. Rachel first saw on the third day of his illness. The fauces and nasal cavity were then almost wholly'covered by a membrane, and the urine was albuminous. Difficulty of breathing began on the seventh day and continued till death, which took place four days later. The patient became finally comatose, and the temperature reached as high a figure as 106.25.0 Others in the same family were attacked by the disease, and there were other cases still in the neighborhood. The specimen of mem- brane as received was apparently in excellent preservation ; it contained bacteria. a. Inoculation of muscular tissue with pure membrane. Experiment 17 : April 23, 1875. Both thighs of a rabbit inoculated with the pure membrane. April 25. Dead forty-five hours after inoculation. Autopsy.—Left thigh : Skin wound closed, but attached to the inner surface of the skin at this point was a small yellow- ish mass about the size of a No. 8 bird-shot. At the point of inoculation in the muscle was a yellowish mass spread out beneath the muscle sheath. The muscular tissue itself was mottled red and white, but there was no extensive inflammatory change in the adjacent parts. Right thigh: Skin wound closed. Over the whole hinder half of the back and belly the subcutaneous tissue was infiltrated with serum, and unnaturately adherent to the skin and sheaths of the muscles. The muscles and their sheaths were stippled with numerous ecchymoses. Track between the skin and muscle-wounds was filled with a yellowish pasty material. This, under the micro- scope, was found to consist of the elements of connective tissue stuffed with leucocytes with a little granular matter. No recognizable bacteria. The same matter from the right thigh was essentially similar in composition. Blood from the right ventricle contained numbers of rod shaped bacteria. Trachea showed post-mortem conges- tion, but no signs of a membrane. Kidneys normal ; no signs of bacteria.