A report of microscopical & physiological researches into the nature of the agent or agents producing cholera / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham.

  • Lewis, T. R. (Timothy Richards), 1841-1886.
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report of microscopical & physiological researches into the nature of the agent or agents producing cholera / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham. 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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    decomposed watery solution of fowl’s blood, which had been used in previous experiments, and had, by this time, acquired an intensely putrid odour, and swarmed with active bacteria, were injected, without previous filtration, into the right femoral vein. Owing to various accidents the dog had to be kept under the iufluence of chloroform for a considerable time. Its respiration twice entirely ceased, and was, on each occasion, restored by mechanical means. At the close of the oper- ation the abdomen was extremely distended. In spite of these adverse circumstances, the animal on the second day was quite lively, and partook of its food freely, although the wound did not present a healthy appearance; but on the fifth day it was so far recovered as to be considered fit to undergo another operation, from which he also recovered and eventually escaped (vide Experiment XLIII). Experiment EIY.—Half an ounce of the watery solu- Materiai used; a solution tion of ordinary foecal matter which hoSlfnoH:fTathatafmo7st had been used in Experiment L and immediate. which, now emitted an extremely foetid odour, was injected into the femoral vein of a small young dog, but within a few minutes after the operation, although he appeared to be getting out of the influence of the chloro- form, his breathing altered and was carried on by gasps. An attempt was made to draw off blood from the opposite femoral vein; but the circulation had stopped. The viscera were at once exposed, but nothing distinctly abnormal observed. The venous sys- Post-mortem appearances; . , , i *i.-i i i i nothing special; bacteria in teiM WUS intensely gorged With blOOCl the blood of tbe right side of , j n j i i . heart but none in axillary and both sides of the heart were vem' distended. In the blood abstracted from the cavities of the right side, monads and bacteria were detected, but in blood removed from the axillary vein no positive evidence could be obtained of the presence of bacteria ; the injected fluid would of course have had to pass through the capillaries of the lungs and of the systemic circulation before reaching the axillary vein. Experiment LY.—A small pariah dog into whose . . , ao.. femoral veins two different speci- Matenal used; solution . . . , f of ordinary frecai matter mens of decomposing choleraic dejecta about 72 hours old: the ani- , , n • ?-. mai already twice injected. p^d already been injected without