The etiology and diagnosis of hydrophobia / Anna Wessels Williams and May Murray Lowden.

  • Anna Wessels Williams
Date:
[1906]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The etiology and diagnosis of hydrophobia / Anna Wessels Williams and May Murray Lowden. 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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    that they have been found in rabbits that have died on the seventh day after inocula^ bon with fixed virus, but that they are very tiny, infrequent, and found with difficulty He finds the largest forms in dogs inoculated subdurally with street virus. Negri s work was soon corroborated by many Italian observers. Volpino, Ber- tarelh, D’Amato, Daddi, Di Vestea, Guarnieri, and Martinotti, published almost immediately after Negri’s first publication. They were soon followed by Celli and De Blasi Pace, and Bose. The “bodies” have been found by these authors, and later by others in all varieties of animals which are susceptible to hydrophobia, i. e., in dogs, cats, rabbits, rats, mice, guinea-pigs, birds, cattle, horses, and human beings. . In 1904 Luzzani published a report of 179 cases, and in all but nine of those which were proven by animal inoculation to be rabies, the “Negri bodies” were found In our own laboratory in the same year, Poor examined 19 cases of street rabies and many cases of experimental rabies, and in all excfept those inoculated with fixed virus the “bodies” were found. In fixed-virus animals he found an occasional homo- geneous eosinophilic granule in the cerebellar cells, about which he expressed no opin- ion. Similar granules were also seen by various other observers, some of whom consider them possibly tiny forms of the organism; but nothing definite has been observed about them, and as indefinite granules have also been seen in other conditions, their significance is uncertain. In 1904 Negri’s work, so far as the presence of these “bodies” in hydrophobia is concerned, was further corroborated by the following workers: Dominici, Mar- zocchi, Bandini, Fasoli, and Schuder. There was no dissenting voice as to their pres- ence, and as to their diagnostic value. Many controls were made by the different observers, especially by Volpino, Marzocchi, Dominici, and Poor. They examined the central nervous system of various animals that had died from poisoning with tetanus, strychnin, pneumococcus, staphylococcus, alcohol, formalin, tubercle bacillus, diphtheria toxin; and of human beings who had died from epilepsy, syphilis, alcohol poisoning, tuberculosis, and various nervous affections. Many normal animals were also examined, all with negative results so far as the “Negri bodies” were concerned. During this time the “bodies” were tested for their resistance to various physical and chemical agents, such as heat, cold, drying, immersion in glycerin, etc., and they were found to retain their characteristic appearance and virulence after more or less manipulation. It does not necessarily follow, however, that the “bodies,” even if they are living organisms, need to retain their characteristic appearance in order to be virulent. We know, for instance, that trypanosomes may seem to disappear from blood which continues to be infective. (Laveran and Mesnil.) Remlinger showed that the medulla of rabbits inoculated subdurally with fixed virus may be virulent on the third day, but he did not work out the exact degree of virulence—that is, the approximate number of organisms in the material inoculated. The fact that it is virulent soon after inoculation, and that no “Negri bodies” have been found at this early period, he thinks is another indication that they are not organ- isms. He does not consider the possibility of there being tinier forms than those so far seen, but believes that the organism in its whole life-cycle is ultra-microscopic in size. In regard to the significance of the “ bodies, ” up to 1905 all of these authors, with two exceptions, agree with Negri in considering them probably Protozoa and the cause of hydrophobia. The two exceptions are Remlinger and Schuder. These latter investigators consider the fact that the virus can be filtered through
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