A report of microscopical and physiological researches into the nature of the agent or agents producing cholera : second series / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham.
- Timothy Richards Lewis
- Date:
- 1874
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A report of microscopical and physiological researches into the nature of the agent or agents producing cholera : second series / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham. Source: Wellcome Collection.
16/78 page 4
![[ * ] and Eelz describing the red corpuscles presenting I'aspcct d'un chaton de marron d'Inde ; and appearing conime reconverts de piquants qui rappellent trcs-bien la forme de batonnets ou Bact6ries, as one of the characteristics of the blood in scpticamiia, typhoid, variola, and measles, and sug- gesting the possibility of such appearances being due to the development upon the red corpuscles of the bacteria which they affirm to be the cause of the diseases in question.* It is no doubt true that a phenomenon like that of The phenomenon may be echhiulation may be induced by vari- inducea by pressure, ous causes, and that some of these causes may be morbid conditions of the blood ; still there is very great need of caution in interpreting the significance of any phenomena which we find may co-exist with health in the subjects furnishing the specimens under examination, nay more, which may be induced accidentally or at will by slight modifications in manipulation. Now, we have no hesita- tion in affirming that this is the case in regard to the pheno- menon under consideration, and, although at first inclined to ascribe some importance to its presence, we have in the course of experience come to regard the whole matter with grave suspicion. Numerous experiments clearly showed that echinu- lation was the invariable consequence of employing a very small quantity of blood so as to spread it out in a very thin layer (vide No. 6, Table I), or of pressure wilfully applied to thicker layers (vide Nos. 8 and 9 of the same table). That other influences beyond mere mechanical pressure do, however, result in producing simi- and by other means. lar appearances was clearly manifest in one or two cases in which the phenomenon came on gradually in specimens preserved in wax cells in which there could certainly be no pressure on the corpuscles, beyond that of the contained air; nor could the evaporation have been sufficient to have accounted for the alteration. However induced, the condition appeared in one of two forms; to the first of these, in which the corpuscles appeared beset with very fine projecting points, the term ' echinulation' is strictly applicable; whilst in the other ' tuberculation' more accu- r 'Recbercbes cliniques et experiuientales sur les maladies infectieuses 4tudiees speVialement nu point de vue, de l'etat du sang et de la presence des ferments.—Pans, J. B. Balliere et Fils, 1872. p. 76.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20395607_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
