Volume 1

A system of medicine / edited by J. Russell Reynolds.

Date:
1866-1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A system of medicine / edited by J. Russell Reynolds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    179/976 (page 159)
    the evacuation stages. After the feculent portions of the stools have passed they have not much smell; hut in the later stages, as before mentioned, if they have been retained in the intestines, they are often very offensive, hut they are not so always. The composition of the Cholera stool has been studied chemically and microscopically. The Cholera stool and the contents of the intestines after death are not exactly alike under microscopic examination, and Dr. Parkes has pointed out the necessity of remembering that Boehm’s observations are applicable to the intestinal contents, and not to the discharges collected during life. As before said, the Cholera stool separates on standing into a thin whey-like fluid, and a variable quantity of sedi- ment. 'The specific gravity of the liquid portion is 1,005 to 1,010. The sedimentary flakes and particles, according to Parkes, Gull, Gairdner, and others, contain organic forms, which are described as follows, lying in a hyaline basis :— 1. Amorphous granular matter and larger granules, often very abundant. 2. Minute bodies having the general character of nuclei, to y-Lj- line in diameter. 3. Fine granular cells; some large, some resembling pus cells. 4. A very small quantity of scaly epithelium, generally not easily discernible. Dr. Parkes states that the actual quantity of sediment is very small; the dried deposit from a pint by measure of a Cholera stool weighed four grains only. The composition of the solid or gelatinous matter of the stools is doubtful: Parkes considers it some modifi- cation of fibrine ; Gairdner thinks that it presents the reactions of mucus. It is possibly some modification of mucus. In contrast with the above, the microscopic appearances of the contents of the intestines found after death, as first described by Boehm, consist of a large quantity of epithelium in various states of aggregation, separate cells, and flakes which are coherent masses of greater or less extent, comprising the coverings of small regions, as apices of villi, or covering the whole villi and their bases in variable quantities. According to the state of aggregation or distinctness of the epithelial particles, and the quantity of fluid in which they are mixed, the appearance of the whole may vary from a rice-water or milky to a creamy, purulent, flocculent, or oatmeal consistence. Dr. Parkes has shown that there are, mixed with these, other organic forms found in the stools. There is very little epithelium found in the contents of the colon. The great difference in the microscopic appearances of the Cholera stools and the contents of the small intestines after death lQi in tllO nnovlxr nfn nlaconon rvP F-I 1 * ii , *