A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 1 : $b Pathology and general diseases
History
A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 1 : $b Pathology and general diseases
Medicine -- Practice
The latter, the bacillus tuberculosis, was to be seen in preparations
methodically treated and carefully stained with aniline colors, by all
of which, excepting the browns, the bacillus was tinged. It was found
in miliary tubercles of the lung, cerebral and intestinal tubercle,
cheesy bronchitis and pneumonia, phthisical sputa, scrofulous glands,
and fungous inflammation of the joints. It was also seen in the
nodules of pearly distemper and in the cheesy masses from the lungs of
cattle. It was furthermore met with in the cheesy lymphatic glands of
swine, in the tubercular nodules of a fowl, and in the tubercles of
guinea-pigs, rabbits, and monkeys. The bacilli were likewise found in
the tubercles resulting from the inoculation of animals with
tubercular virus from its various sources.
The microphytes were described as very slender rods, varying in length
from one-fourth the diameter of a red blood-corpuscle to its entire
diameter, and spores were occasionally seen within the rods. In shape
and size they resembled the bacilli of leprosy, but the latter were
narrower and pointed at the ends. They were found in greatest
abundance when the tuberculous process was recent and rapidly
advancing, and were present within, as well as between, cells. The
younger giant-cells contained them in larger numbers than the older
forms. They were present at the periphery of cheesy nodules rather
than at the centre.
The bacilli were cultivated through successive generations and
required a temperature of between 30° C. and 41° C. (86° F.-105.8° F.)
for their development, one of 37° C. or 38° C. (98.6° F. or 100.4° F.)
being the most favorable. The crop first became apparent on the tenth
day after sowing, and the growth extended through a period of three to
four weeks, forming a compact scale. The cultivated bacilli, even
propagated through several generations, when inoculated, produced the
same positive results as follow the inoculation of fragments of
tuberculous material, although animals might be used which are not
easily infected with tuberculosis.
Koch's publication was immediately followed by a statement from
Baumgarten[69] of his discovery of rod-like bacteria in the tubercles
of rabbits resulting from the inoculation with pearly masses, and in
the pleural and pericardial tubercles of man. They were made evident
by treating the sections for microscopic examination with very dilute
solutions of soda or potash.
[Footnote 69: _Centralblatt für die med. Wissenschaften_, 1882, xv.
257.]
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