Annual report on the Medical Research Institute / 1909-.

  • Nigeria. Medical Research Institute.
Date:
[1913]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the Medical Research Institute / 1909-. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/22 (page 10)
    65. A considerable amount of work was done for the Yellow Fever Commission, the results of which will, no doubt, be published in due course, when the members of the committee have considered them. This work consisted in the classification and arrangement of the case-cards sent in bv Medical Officers from the various stations where the illnesses occurred, and also the examination of a very large number of pathological specimens and blood films, 66. Dr. Scott Macfie and Dr. Johnston obtained the permission of the Commission to publish the results of their work. Their paper is entitled “ Experiments and Observations on Yellow Fever.” It was first reprinted from the proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1914, Vol. VII (Medical Section) pp. 49 to 67, and was afterwards published in the Bulletin, Yellow Fever Bureau Yol. II, No. 2, April, 1914, pp. 121 to 144. 67. A short account is given of the symptoms in the human cases of Yellow Fever which occurred in Lagos from Ma}r till November, 191J. Four cases were in Europeans, three in Syrians, and sixteen in Natives. The classical features of the disease were observed in the former two groups, but the symptoms were variable in the natives, and in practically all of them the illness ran a mild course. 68. Blood films from nineteen cases of Yellow Fever, in the human subject, were examined. Parasites, which the authors conclude are Paraplasma flavigenum (Seidelin), were found in sixteen. The films in the remaining three cases were unsuitable for examination. 69. The parasites were scarce in some cases, but in others they were not so. They were more common in the natives than are malarial parasites during a mild attack of malaria in these subjects. The authors were able to examine the blood daily for twelve days in one case. Parasites were found on eleven days and they persisted after the subsidence of the fever. The opinion is given that the constancy with which the Paraplasma flavigenum is found in the blood of the Yellow Fever patients is a valuable aid to diagnosis. It was impossible to trace out any definite cycle of development, but the several types of endoglobular bodies met with were constant. 70. Fourteen guinea-pigs were inoculated from eleven patients. One or two drops of blood, diluted with 1 njo Sodium Citrate solution, were injected subcutaneously in each instance. Ten of the animals showed a definite febrile reaction, whilst three other guinea-pigs inoculated in a similar way with normal human blood showed no reaction. Four typical temperature charts are reproduced, the readings having been taken per rectum daily at 5 p.m. 71. Three guinea-pigs, all of which had shown a marked febrile reaction, died suddenly on the 16th, 20tli and 28th day after inoculation, respectively. The temperature had returned to normal some time previously in each case. All three showed acute congestion of the liver and kidneys, two had some excess of peritoneal fluid, the urine obtained from the bladder in two contained albumen, and the mucous membrane of the stomach was congested in one. A fourth guinea-pig, killed on the sixth day of illness, showed acute congestion of the liver, kidney, and lungs. 72. Paraplasma flavigenum was found in the peripheral blood of all the animals except one, and this guinea-pig showed auto- erythrophagocytosis.