Report of the Departmental Committee apointed to inquire as to precautions for preventing danger of infection from anthrax in the manipulation of wool, goat hair, and camel hair.
- Great Britain. Committee on Anthrax.
- Date:
- 1918
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the Departmental Committee apointed to inquire as to precautions for preventing danger of infection from anthrax in the manipulation of wool, goat hair, and camel hair. Source: Wellcome Collection.
65/356 page 55
![Group 4.—Samples of Wool from artificial infected citrated Clots. Experiments vill. and ix, (54, °75).—Two samples of wool from artificial infected citrated clots. Treated at Bradford as in Experiments vi. and vil. 30. minutes shaken violently in shaking machine with 200 e:c. of water at ordinary temperature. Fluid reddish brown, distinctly blood-stained. Sediment finely granular, reddish brown, about twice as bulky as sediment in Experiments vi. and vii. ‘fl Experiment x. (to compare with Experiment, i.).—Wool. with. artificial infected citrated clot (prepared in Bradford, but not treated there, and used at. the Fyble Health Laboratory for control purposes). W eight, 95 grammes :— A. 15 minutes in agitator with 1,000 c.c.-of sterilised tap water at 40°.0. Water deeply blood-stained. B.. Passed twice between. rollers. no formed clots. _ C,.10 minutes in agitator with the same wateras that used in. A-(40°),’ D. Passed twice between rollers.. Same result as under B. ’ E.. Wool «dried, at 40° C. Weight, 45 grammes. All fluid -used’ for washing and squeezing out by rollers allowed to sediment. Much deeply blood-stained fluid weiensener eth out, but The moist sediment, very bulky, ill-defined, flocculent, condensing ‘slowly, measures about 50 ¢.c, and is dark blood-red in colour, After addition of formal the supernatant fluid becomes slowly almost clear and colourless, and the sediment. contracts to about half of its original bulk, but remains soft and gelatinous. The wool is apparently clean, not matted and free from clot. (The wool dvd wash-water were used for control experiments made for estimating the extent of infection (see page 57). Other experiments made with citrated clot yielded similar results (see 2664, page 57) without formaldehyde. The effects of the various methods of treatment may be appr aerate ced by the reduction in the weight of the treated wool in conjunction with the state of the wool ‘after ; No. of Weight of Weight of Fluid at 40° C. used for washing in Agitator. fo eee - Sehr eee after Weieht Rollers. washing, pee Natural clots :— Minutes. | Grammes. | Grammes. | Per cent Experiment i. Soft tap water - - 30 z) it 8 | 23°7 EP ii. ditto - - 360* 0 8 4°] 49-0 ie iii. gi> carbonate of 30 4 12 4°6 61:7 sodium solution. » lv. gig. caustic soda 30 | 4 11 3°8 65°5 fo oe 3 Vv. gto hydrochloric acid 90 4 4:5 2°2 51°2 solution. Artificial citr ated clot :— Experiment x. Soft tap water - - 25 4 95 4-5 52°7 i * 12 hours’ soaking in water between the first ancl second agitation. ' (Experiments vi., vii., viii. and ix., which are not comparable with the others, have been excluded.) The percentage reduction in the weight of the wool indicates the amount of blood and other products contaminating the wool which have been. removed by treatment. As the original amount of blood and dirt in the wool was only approximately the same, this method of measurement is not absolutely accurate, but the differences in the final weights are so considerable as to compensate for this source of error. General Summary. 1. Citrated blood is much more’ easily removed from the wool than natural blood clot (compare Experiments i. and x.).. Experiments made with citrated clots are, therefore, not fully comparable with those with ordinary clots. 2. Water is less effective for washing purposes than water acidified with. hydrochloric acid. 3. Acidified water is much less efficient than alkalinised water. 4. Water rendered alkaline by the addition of a comparatively small amount of carbonate of sodium is almost as effective as the more alkaline solution of caustic soda, and is more suitable. . _ 5. The stronger caustic soda solution which renders the clot slimy and slippery is much’ less suitable than the weak ‘solution of carbonate of sodium which does not render the clot slippery to the same extent. 6. Squeezing the clot by passing it between rollers assists considerably the freeing of the ' wool from clot. H 4](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32178049_0065.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
