Report to the Association for the Advancement of Medicine by Research on the relation of micro-organisms to tuberculosis / by W. Watson Cheyne.

  • Cheyne, William Watson, Sir, 1852-1932.
Date:
[1883]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the Association for the Advancement of Medicine by Research on the relation of micro-organisms to tuberculosis / by W. Watson Cheyne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    not consist, as is generally supposed, of broken-down cells, but contains micro-organisms, of which he has made out three kinds; very small delicate micrococci, similar micrococci united in twos and threes to short chains, and also shining, short, rod- shaped structures, very narrow and about half as long again as broad. These rod-shaped bodies are, according to him, of almost constant occurrence in tubercles. In this paper he does not stk'te how they were demonstrated, but in a later paper he says that these bodies, which he regards' as the same as Koch's bacilli, could be readily shown in sputum by staining it in a half per 1000 watery solution of fuchsin. This brino's us to the now famous research of Koch published o in the Berl. Mm. Wochenschr. No. 15, 1882. He showed that a peculiar kind of bacillus was constantly present in tubercle, natural or artificial, and in all animals, and he was able to cultivate this bacillus, and by inoculation with the cultivated organism to produce the same disease as follows the inoculation of tuberculous material. About ten days after Koch published, Baumgarten wrote on a bacillus which he had found in artificial tuberculosis, and which was undoubtedly the same as that described by Dr. Koch. His observation was made quite independently of Koch's, but he did not furnish any proof that the bacillus was the cause of the disease. In July and August last I visited Toulouse and Berlin for the purpose of seeing the methods and the work of those who have been chiefly engaged in these investigations. I arrived at Toulouse on July 21st, and was very kindly re- ceived by Professor Toussaint, who showed me all his methods and the results of his work. The materials which he employs as cultivating fluids are either an infusion of chicken or of rabbit, or blood-serum; the last is preferred. Blood-serum is obtained in the following manner:—A glass retort is perforated at the upper part for the reception of a cork through which a tube containing cotton-wool passes. The mouth of the retort is connected by means of a