A report of microscopical & physiological researches into the nature of the agent or agents producing cholera / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham.
- Timothy Richards Lewis
- Date:
- 1872
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A report of microscopical & physiological researches into the nature of the agent or agents producing cholera / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham. 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.
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![[ 10 ] for two days delirious), we were particularly struck with the marked diminution in the number of white corpuscles, which, in the course of a few hours, are usually seen in the ring of .Bacteroid bodies in typhoid serum surrounding the clot in normal lever; blood; and also by the constant pre- sence of numerous interlacing vibrio or bacteria-like fila- ments along the edge of the preparation, stretching across from one cluster of red corpuscles to another. No movements whatever were exhibited by these bodies, which, in the course of a few hours, became slightly beaded, and eventually dis- appeared. So closely did they resemble the low forms of life above effect of osmic acid on referred to, that we were at first much them; puzzled as to tlieir real nature; but on subjecting a perfectly fresh sample of the blood to the fumes of osmic acid in the usual way, we found that under these circumstances no trace of the existence of the delicate bodies referred to could be detected. We therefore inferred that their presence in specimens otherwise prepared was due to the separation of fibrine, which had not had time to take place to any great extent before the fluid was fixed by the osmic acid. The resemblance which these appearances bore to the tbeir .resemblance to the description of the motionless bade- “bacteridia”in“maiderate”. 0f Davaine, as occurring in the blood in “ mal de rate” or malignant pustule, was very great; and we are strongly of opinion that the bacteridia so promi- nently set forth in connection with this malady, are not living organisms at all, but simply coagulated fibrine-filaments. Whilst this report was passing through the press, Dr. Bastian’s very remarkable work* Non-appearance of lenco- . , it cytes under certain circum- Came Into OUT hands, and WC WCl’C much impressed by a reference made in it to the experiments of M. Onimus, which show that “neither leucocytes nor any other kind of anatomical elements” are produced in serum whose fibrine has been coagulated. This possibly accounts for the remarkable paucity in the Possible reason for the pau- number of wMte-blood corpuscles in typhoid fever when examined as above in cholera. described, and appears to us to verity to a great extent the opinion which we have formed as to the * “The Beginnings of Life,” 2 volumes: Macmillan and Co., 1S72.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22355510_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
