Cholera in Calcutta in 1894, and, anti-choleraic inoculation / W.J. Simpson.

  • William Simpson
Date:
[1895]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cholera in Calcutta in 1894, and, anti-choleraic inoculation / W.J. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    On the other hand, some observers have swallowed comma bacilli, and have been none the worse. This is, however, in accordance with the fact that not every one exposed to the infection of cholera is attacked, and one affirmative case is evidently more valuable than many negative. Professor Pettenkoffer, the well-known Hygienist of Munich, who is opposed to the Hew that the microbes are in themselves the sole cause of cholera, swallowed some of the comma bacilli, and was taken very ill with colic pains and lice-water purging. His Assistant, Professor Emmerich, also tried the same experiment, and suffered to the extent that he was purged 18 times in one day, and his illness like Professor Pettenkoffer’s lasted several days. Professor Pettenkoffer pointed out that these experiments were a confirmation of the view that the comma bacilli are the true infective agent of cholera, while at the same time he believed that the experiment proved that local conditions and predisposition of the individual were also necessary elements in the production of fatal cholera. After the experiment of Professor Pettenkoffer, Professor Metschnikoff, in the Pasteur Institute, interpreting the result as unfavourable to the comma bacillus being the causal agent of cholera, instituted a series of experiments with the object of testing the point. In these experiments one of the men who swallowed the microbe, was affected with such a characteristic attack of cholera that Professor Metschnikoff was forced to abandon his position, and ac¬ knowledge unreservedly that the relationship could no longer be doubted. 4. In the meantime researches were being made to discover a method by which a vaccine could be prepared that would protect the body against the poison elaborated by the comma bacillus. The preparation of vaccines against infectious diseases is one of the problems exer¬ cising the minds of medical scientists of the day. Begun a century ago by Jenner in his discovery of vaccination and its protective influence against small-pox, a great impetus was given to the subject by Monsieur Pasteur in his discovery of vaccines against chicken cholera and against anthrax—a fatal disease affecting the cattle of Prance. Monsieur Pasteur was able to demonstrate the efficiency of his vaccine in a manner that can only be employed on the lower animals. At Pouilly-le-Fort, in the midst of an assemblage of scientists, represen¬ tatives of scientific societies, Government officials, landlords, farmers and representatives of the press, he performed the following experiment:—60 sheep were taken, 10 of these were put aside, 25 were vaccinated with the anthrax vaccine and 25 were left untouched. 12 days afterwards the 50 sheep were inoculated with virulent anthrax, and the next day the 25 un¬ vaccinated sheep were dead, while the 25 that had been vaccinated were perfectly well, and during the whole time they were kept under observation, they presented the same degree of health as the 10 sheep that had been put aside for comparison. Subsequent to this remarkable event was the discovery of a vaccine against rabies, and some animal diseases and now follows the discovery by Professor Haffkine of a vaccine against cholera, a discovery made in Pasteur’s Laboratory where the preparation of vaccines has been an object of special study. 5. In nature the virus of infectious diseases, such as small-pox, for instance, is extremely variable, causing at one time a very mild and at other times an extremely virulent disease- In small-pox inoculations the virus for which was obtained from the natural disease, there was no certainty as to the results. Sometimes a mild form of small-pox was produced, and some¬ times a very dangerous form. The method was abandoned when a fixed vaccine against small¬ pox was discovered in the vesicle produced on the cow. 6. The problem which therefore had to be solved in the preparation of a vaccine against cholera, was to find the means of fixing the virus in a well determined strength, and to be able to keep it for an undefinite time at that known strength. Professor Haffkine solved the problem. He discovered a means of engrafting on animals the cholera microbe and cultivat¬ ing it indefinitely on such animals. This gave him his vaccine. At the same time he was able to increase the cholera microbes to a strength which produced with certainty a specific infectious disease on animals and against which he was able to protect them. By this double discovery Monsieur Haffkine, in addition to obtaining his vaccine, was able to show with the comma bacillus as conclusively on animals, as Monsieur Pasteur had done at the great demonstration at Pouilly-le-Fort with anthrax, that he possessed a vaccine which would protect animals against a fatal infectious disease caused by the cholera bacillus. 7. For cholera inoculation there are two vaccines, one mild, the other strong. For a complete vaccination it is necessary to inoculate twice ; first of all with the mild vaccine which produces some pain at the seat of inoculation, discomfort and fever for about one day; a period of 5 days is allowed to elapse, and then a second inoculation is performed with the second of strong vaccine. This second inoculation produces a similar form of malaise to that caused by the first. The discomfort on the whole is milder and of shorter duration than that of vaccination against small-pox. Its harmlessness was established by very careful and patient observation on medical men and scientists, who were inoculated in Europe soon after the discovery. S. It was first proposed that Monsieur Haffkine should proceed to Siam where, by inoculat¬ ing whole villages, a decision might be come to as to the value of anti-choleraic vaccination. \ fter an. interview, however, with Lord Dufferin, Ambassador in Paris, it was considered that
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