Volume 1

Text-book of the principles and practice of medicine / by the late Charles Hilton Fagge and Philip Henry Pye-Smith.

  • Charles Hilton Fagge
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Text-book of the principles and practice of medicine / by the late Charles Hilton Fagge and Philip Henry Pye-Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    36/1212 (page 14)
    Lister's method of treating wounds is nothing less than a demonstration that they remain aseptic only so long as the organisms which induce decomposition can be kept at a distance. The organisms concerned in these various processes differ remarkably in size, and therefore in the readiness with which the microscope reveals them. The Torula cerevisice, or yeast plant, which brings about the alcoholic fermentation, is made up of rounded cells which develop by budding, and have a diameter of x7T,foo or -f^y.^iTit inch. The Bacterium lactis, which causes the souring of milk, consists of oval bodies, arranged in pairs or sometimes in chains, multiplying by fission, and measuring at the most 9-^-.-^iTTj of an inch, that is, being no larger than the granules which are contained in the cells of the torula. Consequently, as Lister argues, there is nothing improbable in the supposition that yet other oi'ganisms may exist which may be as much smaller than the Bacterium lactis as it is smaller than the torula. Heydenreich aptly remarks that, were it not for the length of the spiral threads which form the microbe of Relapsing fever, it would in all probability have escaped detection ; I'ounded or oval bodies not exceeding in diameter the breadth of the sjArillum would be almost invisible with the highest powers of the microscope. The following are the most important parasitic microphyta. They all agree in not containing chlorophyll: 1. Moulds {Mucorini, Hyplwmycetes, ScJiimmelpihe of Nageli). These are long-branched filaments, which form numerous spores. To the pathologist they have little interest, but one species is sometimes found lining the interior of dry vomicae in the lungs {Aspergillus fwnigatus). Other forms cause certain cutaneous affections, as ringworm. '2. Budding fungi {Saccharomycetes, Blastomycetes, Sprosspilze of Nageli). These consist of rounded or oval cells, which give off buds, and may form beaded threads. To this group belongs Oicliwm albicans, the parasite of thrush.* 3. Fission-fungi {ScMzomycetes, Spaltpilze of Nageli). These are small bodies, which multiply by fission, with or without production of spores. a. S])]ierical bacteria (spherobacteria of Cohn, coccacece of Zopf, micrococci) are exceedingly minute. They sometimes cohere in pairs (diplococci), sometimes in chains (streptococci), and sometimes in heaps (staphylococci), and sometimes they are aggregated into masses held together by a jelly-like material (zoogla'u). Sarcmcc are micrococci arranged in square or cubical packets, the result of fission in different planes. j3. Bacilli (desmobacteria of Cohn) are cylindrical rod-shaped bodies, which sometimes remain united after they have undergone fission, so as to form threads of considerable length. y. Bod-shaped bacteria (microbacteria of Cohn) are smaller than bacilli. They are often slightly constricted in the centre, or dumb-bell shaped. S. Spirilla and spirochcetce are spiral filaments (vibriones, spirobacteria of Cohn), having a well-marked corkscrew motion. By Billroth rod-shaped and spherical bacteria were associated together under the name of coccobacteria. By other authors the bacteria and bacilli are combined, and, from a morphological point of view, this is well justified. But these names are all descriptive only, and not indicative of botanical * Another {Saccharomyces capillitii) lias been recognised on the hairy scalp and elsewhere on the skin. Two other remarkable pathogenic fungi are found in cases of Madura foot in India (Chionyphe Carteri) and of Actinomycosis.