Student's textbook of hygiene / [William James Wilson].

  • Wilson, William James.
Date:
[1915]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Student's textbook of hygiene / [William James Wilson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    resist the effects of desiccation for prolonged periods (at least twenty-eight days), and may possibly be conveyed by infected dust and clothing, as well as by moist particles of mucus from the mouth. Rosenau showed that in a certain proportion of cases the disease could be transmitted from sick to healthy monkeys by the bite of the stable-fly. Flexner and Noguchi have recently obtained cultures, and have been able to produce typical Poliomyelitis in monkeys by inoculation with the twentieth generation of cultures from the original infected animal. The micro-organism described by these workers consists of globoid bodies of extremely small size arranged in pairs, chains, and masses. Preventive measures include notification, isolation of patient, and, if possible, of contacts—at any rate, children from in- fected households must be excluded from school—disinfection of nasal fosse, and the prophylactic administration of urotro- pine to contacts, resulting in the appearance of formic aldehyde in the cerebro-spinal fluid. It has been shown that the ad- ministration of this drug to monkeys prevents the development of experimental Poliomyelitis. Diphtheria is characterized by a membranous inflammation, usually of the nose, tonsil, and pharynx, produced by a definite germ—the Klebs-Loeffler bacillus. Among the characters by which this bacillus is recognized are—(1) Its morphology and staining properties (it is Gram-positive, and shows in staining by Neisser’s method metachromatic granules); (2) rapid growth on serum, and acid production 1 in media containing glucose; (3) pathogenicity for guinea-pigs; (4) the production of a toxin which can be neutralized by an antitoxin. The diagnosis of the disease is facilitated by the bacteriological examination of throat “ swabs.” In 86 per cent. of the cases the bacilli disappear from the throat within seven days after the separation of the membrane. A few convalescents, “‘ chronic carriers,’ may harbour the germs for months, or even a year or more. A “ carrier” ex- amined by the writer communicated the disease a year after her own attack. Diphtheria, at one time relatively a rural disease, is now more common in urban districts. Schools, by bringing children