The principle of disinfection in medicine : being the inaugural address delivered on October 11, 1888, on the opening of the fiftieth session of the Liverpool Medical Institution / by William Carter.

Carter, William, 1836-1913

Date:: 1888

Credit: The principle of disinfection in medicine : being the inaugural address delivered on October 11, 1888, on the opening of the fiftieth session of the Liverpool Medical Institution / by William Carter. 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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$mically in the course of seventeen days a total of -0125 gramme of corrosive sublimate (about i grain in the seventeen days, or ^ grain per day). It was then inoculated with fresh anthrax blood of a guinea-pig, which had succumbed to the disease in 40 hours A second unprotected animal was inoculated at the same time, and died of typical anthrax on the evening of the third day. The protected animal had only a moderate rise of temperature. It lived, and was re-inoculated more than four months after the first inoculation without injury, a control animal submitted to a similar inoculation rapidly dying. Another protected rabbit was inocidated with the fresh blood of a guinea-pig dead of anthrax, and on the ord, 4th, and 5th days after the inoculation its own blood was carefully examined, and on the two latter days unprotected guinea-pigs were in- oculated with it. Both experiments were negative. No bacilli were found from the examination, and the guinea-pigs were unaffected.^ Would not these experiments, even if they stood alone, be sufficient to stimulate inquiry and excite hope 1 They do not stand alone, yet the necessity of continued inqiiiry is shown by the next chapter in this history. It is that contri- buted by Dr Klein.^ Adopting a different method, he found that bacilli of anthrax could have their virulence so diminished by being gro\vn in medicated culture media containing propor- tions of corrosive sublimate varying in amount according to the proved virulence of the bacilli, their spore-containing or sporeless character, &c., as to be capable of injection into different animals without ill effects. But he found that what would destroy the virulence of bacilli of one disease would not impair that of those of another, so that the chemical antagonisers of eacb must be sought by actual experiment. Facts of this kind cannot fail to engender hopes that we may one day be able to antagonise the cause of a fever by chemical means, i.e., actually to cure the disease. Up to the present time any anticipation of the kind has been thought chimerical. * Thirteenth Aniviml Report of tlie Local Oovernment Board. * Ibid., p. 156 el seq.$