Preliminary note upon a trypanosome occurring in the blood of man / by J. Everett Dutton.

  • Dutton, Joseph Everett, 1876-1905.
Date:
[1902]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Preliminary note upon a trypanosome occurring in the blood of man / by J. Everett Dutton. 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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    Heart sounds : weak and distant, otherwise normal. Respiratory System: on admission 32, later in the day fell to 20 per minute, slight dyspnoea on exertion. Lungs: normal. Nervous System: no headache, legs weak ; patient said, they were much thinner than formerly, knee jerk and plantar reflexes present and easily obtainable. Sensation, normal. Urine: normal in quantity, sp. g. 1032 ; no chlorides, no albumen. Patient remained in hospital some fourteen days. Spleen became very painful about the 19th, but ultimately improved. The pulse and respiration were always frequent and varied on exertion and with the temperature. The temperature was a peculiar feature as seen in chart 2. There were three short periods of pyrexia, temperature reaching from ioi° to 102° in a few hours and rapidly falling to below normal, with intervals of about three days of apyrexia. On two occasions I examined the blood for malaria parasites, once in an apyretic interval, and once during a period of pyrexia ; the examinations proved nega- tive. It will be noticed that the pulse was much more frequent during the time he was in hospital at home, very rarely being recorded below ninety beats per minute, although temperature was, as a rule, below normal. This differs somewhat from the recorded rate during the period in hospital at Bathurst. Patient left hospital improved, the pain over the spleen gone. He went away for a change, and finally returned to Bathurst in the early part of December, 1901. On the way out he was very ill with fever, which was diagnosed as pneumonia, though the doctor informed me that it was not a typical case. The sputum was never rusty, in fact, it was more of the nature of pure blood. It is unfortunate that no record of the case was kept at this time. I saw him for a short while after he landed at Bathurst. His appearance was much changed ; he was very much thinner, and walking readily produced fatigue. Dr. Forde asked me to make an examination of the blood ; unfortunately, I had arranged to go up the river, so it was not until my return on December 15 that I was able to do so. At 5 p.m., on this day, I took three drops of blood (three-quarter inch cover slips) fresh preparation. Examination with Zeiss A lens revealed nothing ; with a higher power (Zeiss D lens) I observed the trypanosome—to be described later. Only three of these organisms were present in the three slides. Condition of the Patient on his Return to the Gambia On his return to Bathurst, the patient was placed on the sick list as he had not yet completely recovered from the attack of pneumonia contracted on his way out.