On the curative effect of carbonic acid gas or other forms of carbon in cholera, for different forms of fever, and other diseases / by C.J. Lewis.

  • Lewis, C. J. (Charles James), 1875-1937.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On the curative effect of carbonic acid gas or other forms of carbon in cholera, for different forms of fever, and other diseases / by C.J. Lewis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    IN CPIOLEIJA, p'p:vp:jis, and OTHEK DI8KASP:S. experiment the series of eultures whieh were made on each occasion to deteriiiiiie whetlier these characters were inaiiitaiiied unaltered undei the conditions of experiment. Also it will be unnecessary to describe in detail the appearances of the control cultures which provided verification of the possession by the organisms of their standard cultiu’al characteiistics at the commencement of the research. PREVIOUS RESEAROPI. Experiments have been made as to the effect of carbonic anhydride and carbonic oxiile gases on Koch’s comma bacillus. Of these we will first consider Erankland’s experiments, in which gelatine plate cultivations were submitted to an atmosphere of these gases. The plates, resting on glass stages one above another, were placed in a flat porcelain dish and covered with a glass bell-jar. Mercury was poured into the dish as a seal, and sterilised water poured on the top of the mercury. The weight of the bell-jar caused it to sink into the mercury, which thus acted as the effectKe seal. A piece of sterilised rubber tubing was passed into the chamber, and a current of gas was introduced througli it. The excess of gas and air was allowed to escape at the edge of the bell-jar through the mercury and water. After filling the chamber, the tubing was removed and the dish with its contents set at a certain temperature of incubation. This was usually 20° C. Control plates were at the same time incubated in a damp chamber with ordinary air but at the same temperature. The number of colonies in the control and experiment plates were counted and compared after a certain number of days. The carbonic acid gas was prepared in Kipp’s apparatus by the action of dilute hydrochloric acid upon marble. It was purified by passing it first through a saturated solution of carbonate of soda, and then through a plug of sterilised cotton wool. The carbonic oxide gas was prepared from potassium ferrocyanide and strong sulphmic acid. It was purified by passing it through a satu- rated solution of caustic soda, and then through a small tower filled with slaked lime, and finally thrmigh a plug of sterilised cotton wool. The results of Frankland’s experiments were as follows:—Koch’s comma bacillus showed no growth in the plates in carbonic acid gas even after eight days, and further, when these plates were left for three more days in air they still showed no colonies. Carbonic oxide did not so completely prevent growth, though there were not nearly so many colonies in it as in air. Only a few of the spirilla were developed, and subsequent growth in air was relatively small. Frankland concludes (1) that carbonic acid gas arrests the growth of spirilla; (2) that carbonic acid gas is unfit for use as a method of anaerobic culture, and is more deleterious than other gases, e.g., hydrogen, for that pui-pose; (3) tliat there is a great variation in the power of resistance possessed by individual organisms in ordinary cultivations, and that conditions whicli exert a rapidly destructive infiuence on tlic majority of tlie microbes leave tlie more hardy individuals of the same culture unaffected. It is Tiecessary to point out, liowever, that tlie first-given of tliese con- clusions sliould be restricted to the medium used and to tlie teiu])erature of incubation. While piu'fectly true for a gelatine medium at 20° C., it does not follow that the same results would have heen obtained at blood- heat and on agar or in broth. There is no doubt tliat Vibrio cholerm, like most pathogenetic microbes, develops in artificial media better at 37° C.