Reports and papers on cholera in England in 1893 / with an introduction by the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board.
- Great Britain. Local Government Board
- Date:
- 1894
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Reports and papers on cholera in England in 1893 / with an introduction by the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![chains) there were some undoubtedly comma-shaped bacilli, and also some free flagella. Cultivations were made in a considerable number of tubes of peptone salt solution, as well as in gelatine plates, but the result was negative ; no colonies of comma bacilli appeared. No. 11.—A brownish fluid stool of M. H. Eeceived on October 17th. Amongst crowds of bacteria there were a feAv bacilli which might be taken for commas, and also a few flagella. Cultivations w'ere made in several tubes of peptone salt solution and in several gelatine plates, but the result was negative as to comma bacilli. No. 12.—A brownish fluid stool of E. C. Received October 20th. This person lived in Mill Lane, Deptford, not in the workhouse. The material contained numerous mucous (^non-epithelial) flakes, in which Avere crowds of bacteria, singly and in clumps, apparently bacillus coli. In addition there were present some thin cylindrical and filamentous chains of bacilli. Amongst the latter cylindrical bacilli Avere some which looked slightly curved, as well as some long thin homogeneous spirals. Cultivations were made in several tubes of peptone salt solution, and in several gelatine plates, but the result was entirely negative. No comma bacilli made their appearance. Regarded from the pathological view point, the malady from which the foregoing persons sutiered cannot be considered true cholera. Not one of the stools submitted to me had the rice-water character, nor did any specimen of ileum received by me contain “ rice-water ” material. Moreover, in no case did culture of these materials in peptone salt solu- tion yield unquestionable cholera comma-bacilli. It is of course quite ]30ssible to fail now' and again in cases of true cholera to obtain positive evidence of the presence of the cholera commas. Others besides myself have recorded such failure. But seeing that from not one of the many samples tested could the cholera bacillus be isolated by peptone culture —a medium which T have elsewhere pointed out is almost infallible in picking out cholera commas from among multiple and similar microbes— there is no escape from the inference that these G-reenwich cases were not of the nature of true cholera. Nevertheless this Greenwich malady was characterised by the presence in the evacuations of certain living patients, and in the bowel contents of not a few of the fatal cases, of a definite micro-organism. Morphologically this organism was a bacillus, occurring either in oval or cylindrical rods or as filamentous chains. In well stained and well washed preparations these bacilli appear peculiar in rhe circumstance, that individuals show a faintly stained sheath with a stained granule at each end; the shorter forms appearing like diplococci from their ends being rounded. In all cultivations from the Greenwich cases these bacilli appeared in large numbers. In the early peptone cultures of some of these cases they seemed the only bacilli present, and in the gelatine plate cultures numerous colonies of them could be recognised. In peptone or in both cultures these bacilli grow well and produce rapidly a uniform turbidity ; in gelatine plates they appear after 24 hours as minute grey dots, which in 36 hours have formed small pits due to commencing liquefaction of the medium. After 2-3 days, each greyish white dot has enlarged, and appears granular, the zone of liquefied gelatine around it haA'ing increased and become slightly turbid. Microscopic preparations made of the colonies of a gelatine plate, or of peptone, or of broth cultures, show the bacilli, whether in the form of short ovals, thin longish cylinders, or slender long and short filaments, as activity motile ; the filaments either rapidly progressing and at the same time oscillating, or moving in a serpentine manner. In stained specimens these filaments are seen to be composed of rods, short, oval or cylindrical. All forms show' in the single individuals the bipolar staining Avell marked. In thickness and in the pronounced bipolar staining the short forms resemble^* the Influenza bacillus, as also in the circumstance that they form on agar circular flat translucent colonies, each with a minute white dot in the centre. But they differ from the Influenza bacillus in that they are motile, and that they grow well and rapidly liquefy gelatine at * Further report and papers on Epidemic Influenza 1889-92, with an introduction by the Medical Officer of the Local Government Boaid (Eyre and Spottiswoode). Apr. C. On an Outbreak of Diarrhceal Illness at Greenwich Workhouse, Oct. 1893; by](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24976763_0359.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
