Report on an inquiry into the nature, causes, and prevention of splenic fever, quarter-evil, and allied diseases : made at the Brown Institution / by W.S. Greenfield.

  • Greenfield, W. S. (William Smith), 1846-1919.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on an inquiry into the nature, causes, and prevention of splenic fever, quarter-evil, and allied diseases : made at the Brown Institution / by W.S. Greenfield. 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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    blood of quarter-evil loses its peeuliar properties when decom- position has become at all advanced, indeed that, as has been shown to occur in many cases, such blood may be inoculated in rodents without causing any deleterious effects at the time, though in some cases later effects are developed. Some blood taken six hours after death from the jugular vein of a cow which died of black-quarter on June 24 was received by me on June 28. The blood had been placed in a small stoppered bottle, completely filled and well secured ; neverthe- less when received it was highly offensive. It contained only a few common rod-shaped and other forms of bacteria. About four minims of the blood were injected under the skin of the thigh of a guinea-pig. It was gradually absorbed, the animal showing no symptons whatever. About one drop was similarly injected beneath the skin of the back of a mouse, and no results were produced. Another outbreak, which occurred near Cambridge, has given further opportunities for investigation of this disease. Two cases being reported on February 24, 1880, Mr. Banham went down to Cambridge to examine them and procure material. He found that a post-mortem examination had already been made, and only the affected quarters reserved for his inspection. Nothing abnormal was found in the internal organs. In both cases the affected quarter presented in the most striking manner the usual characters, which have already been described, the subcutaneous and intermuscular connective tissue being in- filtrated with blood-stained serum, and the muscles of blackish- purple colour mottled with spots of haemorrhage. Blood and serous exudation from these parts were secured in capillary tubes about twenty-four hours after death, the weather being cold and almost frosty in the interval. On examining these fluids about thirty-two hours after death I found no sign of decomposition. In the blood and the blood-stained serum which flowed from the quarter, the only striking fact was the entire absence of coagulation, the blood-corpuscles remaining entirely isolated. I was unable, with the highest power which I had at hand (y^th oil-immersion of Zeiss), on prolonged examination to detect any bacteria of any form whatever, even micrococci being absent in the freshly-opened tubes containing only blood. No traces of Bacilli or their remains were discovered. It is the more remarkable that bacteria should have been absent, as it is not uncommon for the blood and tissues of the affected parts to be found in a state of decomposition directly after death, some- times even during life as we have already seen. Inoculation experiments were made with the blood and serum from the affected quarter, as in the preceding case.