On a possible cause of clumping in bacilli, and formation of rouleaux by erythrocytes / by Sir Lauder Brunton.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
[1900]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On a possible cause of clumping in bacilli, and formation of rouleaux by erythrocytes / by Sir Lauder Brunton. 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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    the water, and either to remain partially or totally submerged. This method of imitating the formation of rouleaux by blood corpuscles artificially is due to the late Professor Norris of Birmingham, who, in a paper read before the Boyal Society, 27th May 1869, showed that arti- ficial blood corpuscles partially submerged quickly run together and form rouleaux. If totally submerged they remain indifferent, and do not seem to attract one another. If, however, they are dipped in petro- leum, so that they are not wetted by water, they run together even though they are submerged. These facts are no doubt due to alterations in surface tension. It occurred to me that if the cork discs were covered with soap, so as to be readily wetted by water, they would remain indifferent, but if the water were acidulated the surface of the coating of soap would be decomposed, and a thin layer of fatty acid formed, which would not be wetted by the water; and the corpuscles would tend to form rouleaux, exactly as though they were wetted with petroleum, as in Norris’ experiment, and on testing this I found the corpuscles behaved exactly as I had expected. On trying the same thing with wooden matches, to imitate bacteria, I found that they behaved like the artificial corpuscles, with this difference, that they formed clumps instead of rouleaux. Prom this experiment it seems probable that the formation of rouleaux by the red blood corpuscles and of clumps by bacteria is due to some slight alteration in their surfaces, and this may not improbably be due to the liberation of some fatty substances by means of carbonic acid. In the case of typhoid bacilli the formation of clumps is a complex phenomenon, depending first on the death of the flagella which render the bacilli motile, and thus tend to keep them apart, in spite of any addition to their surfaces; and, second, to alteration in their surface tension, which tends to produce clumping. It is not improbable that the presence of carbonic acid may have a good deal to do with the formation of rouleaux by blood corpuscles and with the clumping of bacilli.
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