Report of a series of microscopical investigations of the pathology of cholera / [Frederick Brittan].

  • Brittan, Frederick.
Date:
[1849]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of a series of microscopical investigations of the pathology of cholera / [Frederick Brittan]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    A ■■ : I The phenomena of such a disease as cholera, a great pestilence which, sweeping over the world, involves all lands and all nations in one common dread and mourning, awaken an uni¬ versal interest far more deep and anx¬ ious than any ordinary curiosity in the current of passing events. The medi¬ cal profession has been appealed to, but with the effect, unfortunately, rather of increasing the mystery and appre¬ hension, than of imparting confidence. It must be honestly confessed that we know nothing of the exact nature and cause of cholera, and in the absence of any one common point on which all professional men are agreed, it would seem as if each considered himself at liberty to throw out his opinions and theories, though based on no previously recognised principle, and without a single well-ascertained fact to support them,—perhaps in the vain hope that at last, in their very multiplicity and variety, some one must hit upon the true explanation. Thus it is that our daily papers and medical periodicals teem with histories, theories, remedies, and even specifics, of so directly oppo¬ site character, all eagerly devoured by the public, and all alike falling before the test of inquiry and experience, un¬ til the disease has begun to be looked upon as a hopelessly inscrutable mys¬ tery, and anything that is put forward in regard to it as only another baseless speculation. Influenced by these circumstances, I have been most anxious to avoid doing or saying anything that could add to the confusion, or mislead those who were really studying the disease, from the right path, and have refrained from making public my own opinions, until the facts they were based on had been submitted to the examination of those most competent to give an opi¬ nion on their validity. I have now done so. I have shown to some of the best microscopical authorities in the kingdom my own specimens prepared represented by the engravings. I have substantiated them on examples fur¬ nished by these gentlemen themselves, and it is with their full concurrence and assurance of their importance that I lay the following facts before the profession. It must, be borne in mind that they are put forward as facts, and not mere opinions, and that the vali¬ dity of my statements have been and can be demonstrated to be true or false by anyone who will take the trouble. In order, however, to simplify the whole matter as much as possible, I shall confine myself to a plain histori¬ cal detail of the investigations. On Monday, July 9th, in conjunc¬ tion with Mr. J. G. Swayne, as fellow- member of a sub-committee appointed by the Bristol Medico-Chirurgical So¬ ciety for the microscopic investigation of choleraic evacuations, I examined two specimens of rice- water dejection (numbers 1 and 2 in both tables) ; and on comparing our drawings made from them, and produced before the sub-com¬ mittee, we were struck with the peculiar appearance of certain bodies depicted in each. On further prosecuting this investigation, I found these bodies to be constantly present in the rice-water evacuation of cholera patients, and offering the same characteristic appear¬ ance that distinguished them from any¬ thing I had before observed. In order to ascertain if they bore in their size or quantity any relation to the severity of the symptoms, I endeavoured to obtain specimens passed by the same patient at different periods, as wTell as to complete the observation by an ac¬ count of his condition at the time. The result was, that as several cases in my table indicated, and as other cases not recorded seemed to prove, I became convinced that a certain relation does exist between the size and number of these bodies, and the time elapsed after the seizure, taken in connection with the severity of the symptoms. That is to say, they are small and clearly de¬