A new pathogenic micro-organism of the conjunctival sac / Hanford McKee.

  • McKee, Samuel Hanford, 1875-1943.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A new pathogenic micro-organism of the conjunctival sac / Hanford McKee. 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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    CONJUNCTIVAL^C.* Hanford McKee^ B.A., M.D. Assistant Surgeon to the Eye and Ear Department of the Montreal General Hos- pital ; Oculist to the Montreal Maternity Hospital; Assistant Demonstra- tor in Ophthalmology at McGill University. From the Pathological Laboratory of the Montreal General Hospital. [Illustrated.] During the last few years the widening of bacteriological meth- ods in ophthalmology has been extensive. In 1883 Koch, while working in Egypt, examined the conjunctival discharge in some cases of Egyptian ophthalmia. Among the catarrhal forms he found constantly a very small bacillus, similar in size to the bacillus of mouse septicemia. In 1887 Weeks reported having seen epi- demics of conjunctivitis in Eew York, in the conjunctival dis- charge of which he constantly found a very small bacillus. This was the same micro-organism which Koch had seen in Egypt. The cultivation of this bacillus was extremely difficult. Weeks was at first only able to cultivate it along with the bacillus xerosis, wlTIr- . Koch’s attempt at cultivation had been unsuccessful. The organ- ism and the conjunctivitis were called Koch-Weeks. Since de- scribed Koch-Weeks conjunctivitis has been studied extensivelv. the clinical characteristics of the disease and the cultural features of the bacillus established. Its presence has been reported from many different countries, and it is to-day recognized as one of the most contagious and best known diseases of the conjunctival sac. Neisser in 1879 had described the gonococcus as seen in the pus of gonorrheal affections of the eye, but it was not until after the Koch-Weeks discovery that much activity was shown in studying the bacteriological factors in conjunctivitis. * In 1896 Morax and Axenfeld described a form of conjunctivitis * Ppart nt tb« maetlng of the Am“clcan Association of teriologists, Washington, May n, in;)7. Pathologists and Bac-