Dr. J. Burdon Sanderson's reports of an experimental study of infective inflammations.

  • Burdon-Sanderson, John Scott, 1828-1905.
Date:
[1875]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. J. Burdon Sanderson's reports of an experimental study of infective inflammations. 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.

    6/34 (page 52)
    App. No. 2. On Infective Inflammations, by^Dr. Burdon Sanderson. Experiments in 1867. designate groups of well defined contour, in which the individual micro- zymes are held together by their interstitial substance, which in this case forms a transparent matrix in which the rods and spheroids are embedded. A bacterium filament is simply a row of rods arranged end to end. A dumb-bell consists of two spheroids connected together by a bridge of envelope substance. A chain consists of a series of dumb- bells arranged end to end. Intermediate forms between dumb-bells and chains and rods or bacteria occur, which may be called varicose rods. We have found it practically more convenient to use these common words* than to apply to the forms the specific designations used by morphologists, e.g., zooglcea for colonies, bacterium varicosum for dumb- bells, bacterium termo for rods, &c. As regards the morphological relation between these forms, I have little to add to what was stated in the last report. It is probable that they are organically continuous forms, but we are not in a position to state the precise relation in which they stand to each other. It is, however, possible to divide them into two groups according to the circumstances under which they occur and thus to establish a classi- fication, which, whatever may be its morphological significance, is of interest pathologically. Of these groups the rod is the type of one, the dumb bell of another. In liquids in which the development of microzymes is going on with very great rapidity, as e.g., in the exu- dation-liquid of intense infective peritonitis, single rods are found which are extremely minute, not larger than 10]00- millimeter in length. The less acute the process the larger the rods, and the more they are arranged in filaments end to end. In exudation-liquids, e.g., in the liquid of a subcutaneous abscess, or of a peritonitis which has lasted for some weeks, there are scarcely any rods ; the prevalent forms are spheroids, dumb- bells, and chains. The observations relating to exudation-liquids have entirely confirmed the conclusion arrived at in my former report with reference to the microzymes of ordinary drinking water, that they do not either origi- nate from fungi or develop to them. On no single occasion has any form of mycelium been discovered in any of the innumerable infective liquids, charged with microzymes which have been examined. Section I.—Previous Experiments on Acute Infection. Before proceeding to bring under the notice of the reader the im- portant results of the inquiries of the past year to which reference has just been made, I propose to give an account of some investigations made at former periods relating to the same subject. In the year 1867 various experiments were made for the purpose of comparing the effect of inoculating various pyamiic or septicajmic liquids with those obtained by the insertion of minimal quantities of chronically indurated lymphatic glands or other products of chronic infection. I transcribe the notes of some of these experiments. Aug. 23rd, 1867. Three guinea-pigs and a dog were inoculated with purulent liquid from the ankle joint of a patient affected with pyasmia. The patient, a man aged 28, was admitted into Middlesex Hospital under my care on the 20th of August, in a state of extreme typhoid depression. He complained of pains in all his joints and there was * Since the above was written, Professor Cohn, of Breslau, has proposed an im- proved classification and nomenclature of bacteria, which will probably be in future generally used by pathologists. See his “ Beitriige zur Biologie der Pflauzen, pp. 127-224.