Reports and papers on cholera in England in 1893 / with an introduction by the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board.
- Great Britain. Local Government Board
- Date:
- 1894
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Reports and papers on cholera in England in 1893 / with an introduction by the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board. Source: Wellcome Collection.
357/372 page 233
![chains) thei-e were souio undoubtedly eomiua-sliaped bacilli, and also mine free fiagella. Gultivations were made in a considerable unmber of tubes of peptone salt solution, as well as in gelatine plates, but the result was negative ; no colonies of comma bacilli appeared. No. 11.—A brownish fluid stool of M. H. Eooeived on October 17th. Amongst crowds of bacteria there were a few bacilli which might be taken for commas, and also a few flugella. Cultivations were made in several tubes of peptone salt solution and in several gelatine plates, but the result was negative as to comma bacilli. No. 12.—A brownish fluid stool of E. 0. Eeceived October 20th. This person lived in Mill Lane, Deptford, not in the workhouse. The material contained numerous mucous ^non-epithelial) flakes, in which were crowds of bacteria, singly and in clumps, apparently bacillus coli. In addition there were present some thin cylindrical and filamentous chains of bacilli. Amongst the latter cyliadrical bacilli were some which looked slightly curved, as well as some long thin homogeneous spirals. Cultivations were made in several tubes of peptone salt solution, and in several gelatine plates, but the. result was entirely negative. No comma bacilli, made their appearance. Regarded from the pathological view point, the malady from which the foregoing persons suBered cannot be considered true cholera. Not one of the stools submitted to me had the rice-water character, no^' did any specimen of ileum received by me contain rice-water material. Moreover, in no case did culture of these materials in peptone salt solu- tion yield unquestionable cholera comma-bacilli. It is of course quite possible to fail now and again in cases of true cholera to obtaia positive evidence of the presence of the cholera commas. Others besides myself have recorded such failure. But seeing that from not one of the many samples tested could the cholera bacillus be isolated by peptone culture —a medium which I have elsewhere pointed out is almost infallible in picking out cholera commas from among multiple and similar microbes— there is no escape from the inference that these G-reeiiwich cases were not of the nature of true cholera. Nevertheless this Greenwich malady was characterised by the presence in the evacuations of certain living patients, and in the bowel conients of not a few of the fatal cases, of a definite micro-organism. Morphologically this organism was a bacillus, occurring either in oval or cj'lindrical rods or as filamentous chains. In well stainea and well washed preparations these bacilli appear peculiar in the circumstance, that iudividu.Mls show a faintly stained sheath with a stamed granule at each end; the shorter forms appearing like diplococci from their ends being i-ounded. In all cultivatiojis from the Greenwich cases these bacilli appeai-ed in large ]iumbers. In the early peptone cultui'es of some of theae cases they wcomed the only bacilli present, and in the gelatine plate cultures numerous colonies of them could be recognised. In peptone or in both cultures these bacilli grow well and produce rapidly a uniform turbidity ; in gelatine plates they appear after 24 hours as minute grey dots, which in 36 hours have formed small pits due to commencing liquefaction of the medium. After 2-3 days, each greyish white dot has enlarged, and appears granular, the zone of liquefied gelatine around ithaving increased and become slightly turbid. Microscopic preparations made of the colonies of a gelatine plate, or of peptone, or of broth cultures, show the bacilli, whether in the form of short ovals, thin longish cylinders, or slender long and short filaments, as activity motile; the filaments either rapidly progressing and at the same time oscillating, or moving in a serpentine manner. Iir stained specimens these filaments are seen to be composed of rods, short, oval or cylindrical. All forms show in the single individuals the bipolar staining well marked. In thickness and in the pronounced bipolar staining the nhort forms resemble* the Influenza bacillus, as also in the circumstance that they form on agar circular flat translucent colonies, each with a minute white dot in the centre. But they diiler from the Influenza bacillus in that they are motile,' and' that they grow wcM and-ra/pidly liquefy gelatine ■ at ■ App. 0. On ail Outbreak of Uiarrhoeal Illnes.s at Greenwich Workliouse, Oct. 18S)3; by Dr. Bulstrode. * I'url her report niul papers on Epidemic Influenza, 1889-i)2, with an inti-oduction bv .Medical OHIcer of thi' Local Government B(ia,i(l (Myre and Spot(iswnode). (ho](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20395899_0357.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
