Dr. Ballard's report upon an acute specific disease, characterised by a peculiar diarrhoea, epidemic among persons who had partaken of refreshments provided at a sale on the Duke of Portland's estate, at Welbeck, Notts. / [Edward Ballard].

Ballard, Edward, 1820-1897.

Date:: 1881

Credit: Dr. Ballard's report upon an acute specific disease, characterised by a peculiar diarrhoea, epidemic among persons who had partaken of refreshments provided at a sale on the Duke of Portland's estate, at Welbeck, Notts. / [Edward Ballard]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$APPENDIX, A. Dr. Klein's report on microscopic examination and experiments made by him in connexion with Dr. Ballard's Welbech enquiry. A. —Received from Dr. Ballard on July 15, 1880 :— I. Portion of cooked ham. II. Another portion of the same ham that had been exposed to sewer air. III. Half a cooked shoulder of mutton that had been exposed to sewer air. B. —Received from Dr. Ballard on July 31, 1880 :— IV. Portion of raw ham of the same consignment as ham I. [American pork dried in England.] HAM I. Microscopic Examination. The greater part of this ham was full of maggots and putrid, but other portions that were tolerably well preserved, when examined under the microscope, contained in connexion with the surface of the muscular fibres and in the intermuscular fibrous tissue certain organisms absent in ordinary putrefaction. These organisms were numerous bright sporules and bacillus filaments, the former isolated, or more often in groups, the latter of various lengths .from a short bacillus rod to eight and ten times its length, either with or without the sporules in their interior. Compare figure I. The sporules and the bacillus threads, there can be no doubt from the examination of the preparations, were generally connected with one another, just as is the case with any other kind of bacillus, e.y., bacillus of hay, bacillus of anthrax, bacillus of fat-acid fermentation, bacillus of putrefaction, of septicaemia, &c. &c. Experiments. The following experiments were made with this ham Experiment 1.—Two dogs that had been kept for the last three months under very regular diet and had enjoyed perfect health, were fed with bits of this material on the morn¬ ing of July 16. In the evening of the same day one of the dogs had severe colics, the animal, lying on its stomach, groaned a great deal and refused food. July 17, the animal seemed all right again ; the other dog showed no symptoms of disturbance. Experiment 2.—Both dogs were again fed with the same material on July 19, but with¬ out producing any symptoms in either animal. Experiment 3.—These two dogs were inoculated into the skin of the thigh with the same material on July 16, an infinitesimal particle of the material being used. 24 hours afterwards the points of inoculation were swollen and red. In one animal it developed after three days into a hard nodule of about the size of a pea, the inguinal glands of the same side being at the same time slightly swollen. Both these dogs were killed on July 23, and the following appearances presented them¬ selves at the post mortem. In both animals the stomach and intestines were distended by, and filled with, a transparent yellowish tenacious fluid, which under the microscope exhi¬ bited numerous flakes of epithelial cells detached from the mucous membrane, thick bacilli isolated and in groups, few pus-corpuscles. The mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines showed slight hypertemia. The epithelium of the surface had become much loosened, so that on the slightest shaking of the membrane the epithelium became ^detached in large flakes. One of the dogs had a cyst in the right kidney of about the size of a pea. Experiment 4.—A healthy cat was fed on July 16 with the above material (Ham I.) No result. On post mortem examination (July 23) nothing abnormal was found. Experiment 5.—Two mice were fed and inoculated July 16. No result, July 23. Experiment 6.—One rabbit was fed and inoculated on July 16. It did not exhibit any symptoms of illness during life. On July 23 it was killed ; both lungs showed numerous luemorrhages in the shape of red spots of a minute size. Cultivation. Material (Ham I.) had been cultivated in the incubator, a minute particle being sus¬ pended in a drop of perfectly fresh white of egg placed in a cultivation glass cell, such as I used on former occasions. (See Reports of the Medical Officer of the Local Go\ em¬ inent Board for 1877, Supplement, p. 210.$