Report on the nature and import of certain microscopic bodies found in the intestinal discharges of cholera : presented to the Cholera Committee of the Royal College of Physicians of London ,by their sub-committee, on the 17th October, 1849.

Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the nature and import of certain microscopic bodies found in the intestinal discharges of cholera : presented to the Cholera Committee of the Royal College of Physicians of London ,by their sub-committee, on the 17th October, 1849. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    and a granular centre, which is either scarcely cupped, flat, or even slightly embossed. Iodine does not colour them; they decay in water; but after longer time than those previously de- scribed: in ether they become colourless and transparent, especially in the centre, crack in angular lines, and, in some cases, under slight blows, the rim appears to fall away in pieces and leave a central well-defined mass. One or more of the small annular bodies are frequently found lying upon them, and, occasionally, appear to be in them or beneath them ; but I have never seen a group of smaller bodies within a larger one. Having found cells of this kind abundant in the case of a patient who had eaten daily of walnuts previous to his attack, I digested artifically and examined portions of that fruit and its skin. Beneath the epidermic layer, are found polygonal cells containing a coloured granular matter, differing from those composing the oily substance of the nut. In the cabbage and onion, greenish and yellowish cells are found, also differing in their contents from those amongst which they lie ; and, lastly, beneath the outer skin of the potatoe, and that of the grains of wheat and barley, coloured cells exist, perfectly distinct in character from those containing the starch granules. In the walnut, wheat, and barley, they are somewhat flattened, and have a fusiform, or polygonal, or even a roundish outline. (Fig. 18.) They resolutely resist artificial digestion. By maceration in liquor potassas, and the subsequent addition of water (under the microscope), they swell, sometimes sepax'ate from each other, and become more or less rounded in outline. Those obtained in this way, from the softened cotyledon of wheat, are coloured yellow by the alkali, and display a pale central spot, which by prolonged maceration becomes larger, and pushes towards the margin of the cells, their granular contents: on bursting them, a thick, limpid, oily fluid escapes. Ether causes them to shrink. In size, colour, and form, they very much correspond with the larger cholera bodies just now described. A close imitation of the changes incident to digestion might esta- blish their identity. Certainly, flat, yellowish, polygonal or fusiform bodies, resembling these cells unaltered, do exist in cholera and typhoid evacuations. c. Another set of bodies, not nearly so numerous as the last, but also above the medium size, and having a rounded form, are cha- E
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