Reports of the Committee of Management and Medical Director for 1935 / Papworth Village Settlement.

  • Papworth Village Settlement (Cambridge, England)
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports of the Committee of Management and Medical Director for 1935 / Papworth Village Settlement. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/48 page 25
    PATHOLOGICAL AND BACTERIOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT (Dr. W. Pagel) Bacteriological Department : The morphological investigations on the differentiation of inactive tubercle bacilli in cultures and tissues by means of staining ■methods were continued and the conclusions, drawn before, confirmed. Bacilli eosino¬ philic when stained with Giemsa’s method were found in fluid cultures with suppressed growth of the bacilli, and also in very old and very young cultures. The findings of the inactive (eosinophilic) bacilli in inactive, especially cal¬ cified, foci of the human lung were frequently repeated. The methods of culturing tubercle bacilli were improved and the influence of the addition of blood serum to fluid culture media was studied. A new simple method of emulsifying tubercle bacilli under sterile conditions was designed. The dependence of cultural morphology upon the ph was examined. Serological Department : The total number of examinations of the bactericidal power of the human blood serum towards the growth of tubercle bacilli was greatly increased (to about 250 cases) and in the majority the result was consistent: suppression of the growth in cases of common isolated bronchogenic tuberculosis of the adult, retardation or suppression of the growth in cases of chronic generalisation and hemato¬ genous pulmonary tuberculosis. The appli¬ cation of the method for differential diagnosis of the hematogenous lesion was studied. Repetition of the bile-test in a great number of cases demonstrated its advantages for the estimation of activity and anatomical extension of the lesions in cases where other methods failed. The clinical value of Weltmann’s coagulation test and Meinicke’s specific test for active tuberculosis was examined, the latter in about 200 cases. Morbid anatomy and histology 40 autopsies mostly on cases of tuberculosis were performed and followed up by careful histological examinations of the lesions. Special attention was paid to the pathogenesis of the individual cases, that is to say a search was made for the primary lesion, postprimary hema¬ togenous outspreads and the development of the early lesion of the bronchogenic phthisis. The problems of histogenesis of tuberculous lesions—especially of caseation and liquefac¬ tion and of the healing processes—were studied.
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