The Lumleian lectures on some moot point in the pathology and clinical history of pneumonia : delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London on May 30th and June 4th and 6th, 1912 / by Percy Kidd.
- Kidd, Percy
- Date:
- [1912]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The Lumleian lectures on some moot point in the pathology and clinical history of pneumonia : delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London on May 30th and June 4th and 6th, 1912 / by Percy Kidd. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![the more sensitive animals, the pneumococcus causes a septicemia from which the animal rapidly dies without any marked local changes in the organs. In more re- sistant animals the septicemic condition is less marked or absent, and fibrinous exudation occurs in the lungs and serous membranes as in man. But it has been shown that most of the localized com- plications of pneumonia are due to the diplococcus, such as meningitis, peritonitis, pericarditis, bronchitis, endo- carditis, otitis, &c. Moreover, in many instances a primary meningitis, pericarditis, peritonitis has been proved to be pneumococcal when the lungs had escaped entirely. The same is true of inflammations apparently primary of other parts—rhinitis, tonsillitis, conjunctivitis, orchitis, prostatitis, cystitis, enteritis, thyroiditis. Mention may here be made of an extensive research, conducted by Kiralyfi [5], of Budapest, in Professor Border's laboratory in Brussels, on pneumococcal in- fection in guinea-pigs. Kiralyfi finds that, contrary to the usually accepted statement, this animal is very sus- ceptible to infection. Of the twenty-five guinea-pigs inoculated subcutaneously with pure cultures a few re- covered, one was killed six days afterwards, the rest died twenty-four hours to seven days after infection. The results of his experiments confirm the conclusion of clinical observers that the heart is specially liable to suffer in pneumococcal infection. In cases of rapidly fatal septicemia without any gross lesions of any organ, microscopical examination of the heart shows definite changes in the myocardium or in its interstitial tissue. The first change observed is a dilatation of the capillaries and small arteries. At a later stage capillary hemorrhages occur, and somewhat later oedema of the myocardium with dilatation of the lymphatics associated with prolifera- tion of their endothelial cells. Numerous lymphocytes are found in the ©edematous areas, a fact which stamps the oedema as inflammatory, although no diplococci are found in the muscular walls. (Edema is most marked](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21353487_0011.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
