Etiology of erysipelas : Its relation to the nasal cavities and its destructive effects upon the eye.

  • Christian Rasmus Holmes
Date:
[1907]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Etiology of erysipelas : Its relation to the nasal cavities and its destructive effects upon the eye. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    13/88 page 11
    In order to ascertain whether the combinations of organ- isms present might be pathogenic, even though the individual organisms in pure culture were not so, several injections of impure cultures were made. The results yielded no evidence that organisms, which in pure culture were non-pathogenic, would in combination give rise to disease. The reverse was, however, not the case, for in three instances a pneumococcus, which in pure culture was pathogenic, produced no illness when injected along with the other organisms present in the same case. Pneumococci, tested in ten acute cases, were pathogenic to irabbits in five, or 50 per cent. Staphylococci, tested in ten acute cases, were pathogenic to guinea pigs in five, or 50 per cent, and streptococci, tested in eight acute cases, were pathogenic in six, or 75 per cent. Pneumococci, tested in seventeen chronic cases, were patho- genic to rabbits in five, or 29 per cent. Staphylococci, tested in twenty-eight chronic cases, were pathogenic in nine, or 33 per cent. In four cases in which the condition had lasted more than eight years, streptococci were found pathogenic to ani- mals, but not fatal. In 'recent cases the organisms are pathogenic twice as often as in chronic cases. In both recent and chronic cases, the streptococci are more pathogenic to animals than all other varieties. The streptococci are almost always pathogenic when recovered from recent cases, but in chronic cases seem to have largely lost their virulent characters. There is no guar- antee, however, that these organisms would remain so little virulent if by chance implanted on more suitable soil. Iglauer (73) of Cincinnati, working in the Pathological In- stitute of Vienna, and taking nasal mucus directly from the posterior nares by means of a head section as soon post mortem as practicable, found, in twenty selected cases, the staphylo- coccus pyogenes aureus in eleven cases, the staphylococcus pyo- genes albus in six cases, the diplococcus pneumoniae in eight cases and the streptococcus pyogenes in six cases. In fourteen additional cases in which there was a marked pulmonic lesion, he found the staphylococcus pyogenes aureus in seven cases, the staphylococcus pyogenes albus in eight cases, the diplo- coccus pneumoniae in eight cases and the streptococcus in six cases. Finally, as a negative contribution to the etiology of diseases of the maxillary antrum, the only one of the accessory cavities suspected of having any other than a nasal source for
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3