Report to the Local Government Board on a disease in ship rats due to trypanosomata / by E. Klein.

  • Klein, Edward Emanuel, 1844-1925.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report to the Local Government Board on a disease in ship rats due to trypanosomata / by E. Klein. 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.

    8/8 (page 4)
    Mus rattus the Trypanosoma lewisi causes occasionally, though rarely, a fatal issue (Dotlein : Die Protozoen als Parasiten und Krankheitserreger, p. 63), it is important to note that mortality amongst ship rats may he—as in this case it would seem to have been—due to this cause, and in future inquiries Trypanosomiasis as a possible cause of mortality amongst ship rats will have to be borne iu mind. Experiments with the Wood Trypanosoma of the Bristol Rat. With a mixture of the sanguineous fluid of the lungs and the blcod in the thorax subcutaneous injection was made into two white mice and one guinea-pig, using for each animal appreciable amounts (?.-^ cc.) of the fluid swarming with the living Trypano- soma. The guinea-pig remained lively and quite normal. Its peripheral blood was examined for the presence of Trypanosoma on the 5th, 6th, 8th, 11th, loth and 10th day after injection, but with totally negative result. The two mice appeared affected on the fifth day. They seemed quiet and somnolent, did not feed, one mouse more so than the other. This mouse was killed. The heart blood, the lung juice, the blood of the liver and of the spleen were examined for Trypanosoma with totally negative result. The post-mortem examination of all these viscera did not reveal anv.noticeable pathological change. .With the mixture of all these tissues (about 4 cc. sanguinous fluid) one adult white rat was injected subcutaneously with totally negative result. The second mouse seemed to have recovered on the sixth day— being again lively and feeding; it remained well ; its peripheral blood was examined for Trypanosoma on the 5th, 8th, 10th, 12th and 17th day with negative result. The negative results on the guinea-pig and the mice accords with the above diagnosis of Trypanosoma lewisi, since these animals are, as a rule, quite refractory to this species of Trypanosoma. Examination of Section of the Hardened Lung and Liver of the Bristol Rat. The hasmorrliagic portions of the lung and of the liver of the Bristol rat were hardened in suitable fluid (Mullers’ fluid, then f, alcohol, then pure alcohol); thin sections were prepared, stained with Methylblue-Eosin and mounted. Microscopic examination of the lung showed the following :—All parts—alveoli, infundibula, bronchi and peribronchial tissue—were filled with blood in substance ; amongst this blood appeared small and large clusters of what corresponded to masses of Trypanosoma, their bodies mere or less granular ; no bacilli of any kind could be found anywhere. In the sections through the liver the intralobular capillaries were found distended by blood, the interlobular veins were in the same condition and containing small groups of Trypanosoma, whose bodies were granular. The liver cells everywhere swollen and their substance coarsely granular. No bacilli could be found anywhere.