The sources and modes of infection / by Charles V. Chapin.

  • Charles V. Chapin
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The sources and modes of infection / by Charles V. Chapin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    91/506 (page 73)
    known for many years, it is only very recently that any ex- planation has been forthcoming as to the mode of infection. The finding of the organism in the nose of patients suggests the possibility that infection may pass to the brain from this point. It is theoretically possible for infection to take place through the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone, or, as sug- gested by Westenhoeffer,1 by the lymphatics from the pha- ryngeal tonsils, or as some think, by absorption from the alimentary canal and passage through the lymph channels or the general circulation. The organism is certainly found in the blood in a considerable number of cases.2 What the exact route to the brain is, however, has not yet been determined. That the germ of this disease is found in the nose of the sick is now generally recognized, though considerable doubt has been thrown on the accuracy of some of the earlier obser- vations, as this organism is not readily distinguished from the cocci frequently found in the normal nose. Culture and agglutination tests are now recognized as the only valid methods of differentiation. Among those who have certainly isolated it in a considerable number of instances from the nasal mucous membrane of cerebro-spinal meningitis cases may be mentioned Dunham,3 Weichselbaum and Gohn,4 Lin- gelsheim,5 Goodwin and von Sholly 6 and others. Causes Rhinitis.—That this micrococcus is frequently found in the nose of contacts, and other persons showing no symp- toms of the disease, is now well established. An interesting case is that of Kiefer,7 who while working with a culture in the laboratory developed a severe rhinitis and succeeded in 1 Westenhoeffer, Berl. klin. Wchnschr., 1905, XLII, 737. 2 Bimie and Smith, Am. J. M. Sc., Phila., 1907, CXXXIV, 582, and Simon, J. Am. M. Ass., Chicago, 1907, XLVIII, 1938. 3 Dunham, J. Infect. Dis., Chicago, 1906 [Suppl. No. 2], 10. 4 Weichselbaum and Gohn, Wien. klin. Wchnschr., 1905, XVIII, 625. 6 Lingelsheim, Klin. Jahrb., Jena, 1906, XV, 373. 8 Goodwin and von Sholly, J. Infect. Dis., Chicago, 1906 [Suppl. No. 2], 21. 7 Kiefer, Berl. klin. Wchnschr., 1906, XXXIII, 628.