Report of the Committee of Management and Medical Director : 1948 / Papworth Village Settlement.

  • Papworth Village Settlement (Cambridge, England)
Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Committee of Management and Medical Director : 1948 / Papworth Village Settlement. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/14 (page 12)
    RESEARCH DEPARTMENT £. M. Brieger, M.D. B. R. Smith, B.Sc. A. Johnson. Electronmicroscopy of Mycobacteria In conjunction with Dr. V. E. Cosslett, head of the department for Electronmicroscopy, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, investi¬ gations on the internal structure of Tubercle bacilli were continued and extended to the bovine bacillus. A new technique was evol¬ ved (described by the writer at the meeting of the American Society for Electronmicros¬ copy at Toronto, October 1948) by which the bacilli were grown directly on the grids, either placed on a solid medium or floated on a fluid medium. Our previous results show¬ ing the appearance of internal bodies were confirmed by this method, and further information on the nature of these structures was obtained. Host-Parasite Relationship in Tissue- Culture In previous publication on my work with Dr. Honor B. Fell, Strangeways Research Laboratory, Cambridge, we reported that tissue culture infected with virulent avian bacilli survived the infection very well, although the bacilli contained in the phago¬ cytes remained viable and capable of active multiplication. We have been able to show that a similar symbiosis exists between the human tubercle bacillus and susceptible host tissues. This work is being continued—our study on the host-parasite relationship be¬ tween the tubercle bacillus and tissues from both susceptible and resistant hosts is now nearing completion. Methods for the Assessment of the Action of Chemotherapeutic Agents We started to examine the action of oxalic acid on tubercle bacilli grown in microculture. We were able to show that the addition of 5 per cent or more oxalic acid to the medium completely arrested growth, 2.5 per cent oxalic acid inhibited growth, and I per cent did not affect growth at all. We have since extended this technique to the action of promin and streptomycin. In both cases we observed that concentrations which inhibited growth encouraged non-acidfast forms to form. The effect of these agents on T.B.- infected tissue culture is now being studied. [12] Demonstration Pathological Society, London, January, 1948. E. M. Brieger, J. Smiles and F.Welch (National Institute Medical Research, Hampstead) on Observation of living avian tubercle bacilli in reflected light (Ultrapak.) THE SIMS WOODHEAD MEMORIAL LABORATORY Clinical Pathologist, D. Barron Cruickshank, L.R.C.P., L.R.C.S., D.P.H., LD.S. Chief Technician, F. Boot, F.I.M.L.T. The increase of the diagnostic work of the laboratory, already remarked in previous years, has continued. While most noticeable in the sputum section, where the total items reported increased from 5,203 in 1947 to 6,959 in 1948 (2,043, 997, 2,340, 1,579), there are similar trends in other departments ; for example, in Clinical Chemistry there was -a corresponding increase in items from 1,187 in 1947 to 1,720 in 1948. These increases have introduced problems of staffing and accommodation unforeseen at the time the present laboratory extension was designed. TABLES Clinical Chemistry Standard Urinalysis ... ... ... 834 Special (quantitative) Urinalysis ... 212 Blood Chemistry . 57 Test Meals, C.S.F., etc. ... ... 526 Food and Drugs ... ... ... 91 Analytical Chemistry Milk (Phosphatase, etc.) ... ... 456 Water (Hardness, etc.) ... ... 464 Bacteriology and Haematology Sputum : Direct Microscopy ... 2,043 ,, ,, ,, (Hunts. & Beds C.C.) 997 ,, Fluorescence Microscopy 2,340 ,, Cultures for T.B. (No. of cases) ... ... ... 1,579 Cultures (All varieties, T.B. and others) ... ... 6,332 Microscopical Preparations ... ... 5,876 Animal Inoculations ... 34 Serological Tests . 6 Penicillin and Sulphonamide Sen- sitivity Tests, etc. ... ... 1,146 Haematology ... ... 1,206