A report of microscopical and physiological researches into the nature of the agent or agents producing cholera / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham.
- Timothy Richards Lewis
- Date:
- 1872
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A report of microscopical and physiological researches into the nature of the agent or agents producing cholera / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![The points in question will l)e made the subject of care- ful enquiry, but meantime it appears desira])le tliat the pos- sible accuracy of the views we have expressed should be recorded. C.—Observations on the blood in connection with the question of monads and bacteria, of fungi and of sarcinse. Intimately associated with the zymotic theories of the Concerning the relation production of disease, and notably of fs'^iTs'L^n^d^Klntiron^ cholcra, is thc queston of the exist- ries of disease. ^^^^ mouads, bactcria and such like organisms in the blood of the persons affected, either in such a condition as readily to be recognized, or in such an undeveloped state as to elude detection by the best objec- tives yet constructed. As to the former condition, we have already very emphatically expressed the conclusion which our observations have forced upon us, at least so far as the blood in cholera is concerned, namely, that no such bodies can be seen in this fluid, either during life or within a few hours after deatb as an invariable concomitant of the disease. Whether or not such organisms may, nevertheless, be possibriity of low orga- potentially prcsont, is a question to ^ISf In^'fifeSttr'm'e^tifo'ls which WB havc dcvotcd a Considerable adopted to test this question. pQj^.|.iQj^ ^-^^g^ satisfy om'selves on this point, cursory examinations merely of any number of specimens of blood would have availed but little, consequently the plan already described for the continuous observation of preparations of this nature was adopted. Before starting, however, we satisfied ourselves that the amount of air present in the wax-cells resorted to was amply sufficient by inoculating' samples of healthy blood with minute quantities of bacteria; and observing whether or not the latter could be seen to multiply as rapidly in these closed cells as in similar cells whose walls had been perforated in two or three places, so as to permit of the free ingress and egress of air, not the slightest differ- ence could be observed. Eungi were also tested in the same way with identical results. Indeed, after the first few hours of observation, many of the preparations here referred to were thus ventilated, but this appeared to have no efl'ect, save to render them more liable to invasion by fungi and acari.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20392023_0028.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
