Two cases of post-typhoid anæmia : with remarks on the value of examinations of the blood in typhoid fever / by W.S. Thayer.

  • Thayer, William Sydney, 1864-1932.
Date:
[1894?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Two cases of post-typhoid anæmia : with remarks on the value of examinations of the blood in typhoid fever / by W.S. Thayer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    small number of leucocytes during the height of the fever, but in two an increase at the beginning. In one of these the proportion of color- less to red corpuscles was 1 to 120 on the eighth day, but normul throughout the rest of the time. In the other case, which he saw first on the sixth day, he asserts that he found 47,000 leucocytes to the cubic millimetre, while on the seventh there were 62,000. On the following day there were but few leucocytes, and on the ninth in three counts (Hayem's method) he found none—an interesting and unique observation. It is worth mentioning, perhaps, that some of his other counts of leucocytes are unusually high. Bonne also found a slight temporary leucocytosis in one case at the beginning of con- valescence; this was probably associated with certain suppurative complicating processes. On the other hand it has been generally recognized by almost all recent observers, as well as by some of the older ones who have investigated this special point, that there is not only no increase in the proportion of colorless corpuscles (leucocytosis) during the fever, but that, on the contrary, there is rather a ten- dency toward a diminution in number at the height of the disease. Many of the older authors call attention to the fact that the fibrin in the blood is diminished during typhoid fever, in contradistinction to the increase always observed in acute inflammatory affections. Raci- borski<3) in 1839, as the result of the inspection of the clot obtained from the first blood-letting in a large number of cases of typhoid fever, noted the almost complete absence of the buffy coat, a striking contrast to the increase which is always observed in acute inflamma- tory processes. He asserts that in a case of typhoid fever in which the buffy coat is well marked we may be sure that a complicating inflammatory process exists. Durozier,0'-0 Sorensen,(27) Halla(33) and Tumas(40) all note the absence of leucocytosis. Tumas thinks that the proportion of colorless corpuscles may be slightly diminished at the height of the disease. Hayem(41) finds that the leucocytes diminish appreciably during the fever, sometimes reaching a point as low as 1000 per cubic millimetre, often falling under 2000. Pee(42) found in two cases a diminution in the number of leucocytes. Ouskow(43) and Khetagurow(46) note also the diminished proportion of colorless corpuscles, the latter in three cases finding that the number of leuco- cytes fell gradually, reaching its lowest point (2500 to 3000) at about the end of the third week, and beginning at the end of lysis to return to the normal, which is reached by the sixth or seventh week.