A report on the microscopic objects found in cholera evacuations, &c. / by Timothy Richards Lewis.

  • Timothy Richards Lewis
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report on the microscopic objects found in cholera evacuations, &c. / by Timothy Richards Lewis. 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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    CULTIVATION OP CHOLERAIC DISCHARGES To experiments conducted in this manner, there is the serious objection that each time the preparation is examined, . no matter how carefully, the possibility exists of foreign' j matter getting into the preparation. With the intention of obviating this source of fallacy as J oribed.tmB apparatns des- much as possible, an aspirator was em-1 ployed to supply the preparation with | purified air, at least as pure as passing it through concentrat-1 ed sulphuric acid will allow. By referring to the accompany-1 ing sketch, it will be readily seen how this was effected | (Big. xviii). A small funnel (1) with a pledget of clean cotton I wool inserted into its neck was attached to a piece of bent I glass-tubing ; this tubing passed through a perforation in the I cork of a flask (2) containing concentrated sulphuric acid; I from the neck of this flask another piece of glass-tubing I emerged which connected it with a perforated bell-glass, stand- j ing in a shallow dish containing Condy’s fluid; (3) another | piece of tubing connected this with the aspirator (4) filled with j water. All the connections were carefully luted, so that the ] only air which could have got at the preparation on the stand within the bell-glass (of course minus the air which previously existed therein) must have passed through the sulphuric acid, j Illustration III:— A perfectly fresh choleraic evacuation having been ■ obtained two hours before death (in a rapidly fatal case lasting only seven horns), three watch-glasses were placed in the isolating apparatus with the following ingredients :— No. I.—A slice of the interior of a plantain weighing quarter of an ounce was scooped out, and six drops of the sediment from the evacuation was placed in the little Substances placed in tbe isolating apparatus cavity thus made. No. XI.—A few drops of the evacuation-sediment only. No. HI.—A slice of the same plantain as in No. I. The apparatus had been made as clean as possible pre- vious to this, rinsed out with spirit immediately before deposit- in0, these glasses on the stand beneath the bell-glass, and the greatest care taken to avoid foreign matter getting at the pre- parations before placing them there. The air within was renewed morning and evening; the weather was warm the whole time, the average day temperature of the room being about 90° Fahr.