Interim report on the relations of septic to pathogenic organisms. / by E. Klein.

  • Great Britain. Local Government Board.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Interim report on the relations of septic to pathogenic organisms. / by E. Klein. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    on mice and guinea pigs, and anthrax blood of guinea pig being virulent to sheep, but not virulent to cattle. What we have to suppose is that the bacilli are in all instances the same, but that there is something else present which has become associated with the bacilli in particular cases, and which hinders them from producing their fatal effects; and that it is the presence or absence of this some- thing which determines the effect of the bacilli upon animals of one or another species. That an inhibitory effect can be produced on the bacillus anthracis by purely chemical processes is shown in the behaviour of these bacilli under the influence of certain anti- septics. Thus Chamberland and Roux found that carbolic acid or bichromate of potash added to the nourishing medium in the proportion of 1 : 800 or 1 : 1,000 respectively, produced a distinct attenuation of the bacillus anthracis ; and I myself have fovuid (by experiments, which I shall state in a further report) that exposure of bacilUis anthracis, both of the blood and of a culture, to weak solutions of phenyl propionic and phenylacetic acid produces a distinct inhibition of the viinilence of the bacilli, but these bacilli were capable of ao-ain startino; cultures of virulent bacilli. An inhibition of the function and vital activity by purely chemical means occurs in the case of many otlier organisms besides the bacillus anthracis. It is well established by Wernich and others that in cultures (natural and artificial) of putrefactive organisms certain chemical substances (chiefly belonging to the aromatic series) are brought into existence (e.y., indol, skatol, phenol, and others) which have an injurious effect on the organisms, so much so, that as these substances accumu- late in a given culture, in proportion to the progress of the growth of the organisms, the functional activity of the parti- cular organisms becomes inhibited and eventually altogether extinguished. And there is a priori no reason why some- thing similar should not occur in the case of pathogenic organisms, and certain chemical substances be produced in a nourishing material as the result of the growth and multipli- cation there of the organisms themselves ; such substances, although owning this origin, having some such Inliibitive power for the pathogenic organisms that indol, skatol, and phenol had for putrefactive organisms. Whatever may be the nature of this inhibitive material, we may infer something about the circumstances of its presence and about its properties. It is present after some days in a sporeless culture esta-