Dr. Ballard's report to the local goverment board upon an outbreak of diphtheria in a cottage adjoining the churchyard at Trotterscliffe near Wrotham, Kent.

  • Ballard, Edward.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Ballard's report to the local goverment board upon an outbreak of diphtheria in a cottage adjoining the churchyard at Trotterscliffe near Wrotham, Kent. 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.

    6/12 (page 6)
    December 2, 1879. I have now made a sufficiently great number of inoculations to be able to say some- thing positive about the infective property of the material given to me for examination. As far as the microscope is concerned, I have not been able to see in any of the samples anything peculiar to them; for all of them contained, as might easily be expected, bacteria of many different kinds, and some of them (water from the pond and the mud from the drain-channel) in addition higher fungoid organisms. The experiments of inoculation carried out on rabbits yielded the following results :— (I may at the outset state that the inoculations were made with infinitesimal doses into the conjunctiva, which to my experience is more susceptible than the skin or the mucous membrane of the mouth. I mention this in order to show that a negative result of the inoculations is as true as—if not truer than—an inoculation into the skin or other pans.) 1. Inoculation (13th Kov.) with pond water, 2 rabbits; no result. 2. Inoculation (13th Nov.) with drain-mud, 2 rabbits. One rabbit died after 40 hours, the appearances were such as to warrant tke diagnosis of a sort of septicemia. Quantities of long cylinders were found in the urine of the bladder; this was thick and brown and contained those cylinders in the form of larger or smaller whitish flakes and threads. The mucous membrane of almost the entire small intestine was easily peeled off in flakes, and was covered with thick muco-purulent matter. Mucous membrane of larynx, trachea, and bronchi much injected and shows hsemorrhage, especially about the entrance of the larynx. Palate and pharynx swollen, injected and covered with an exudation-membrane. Thus it appears, that this disease differed materially from ordinary septicsemia in rabbits, inasmuch as there were here certain appearances of the pharynx and larynx and intestine which are not, to my knowledge, observed in rabbits when inoculated with septicsemic material. The blood of the above animal was crowded with very minute bacteria, and when inoculated, in infinitesimal doses, into the conjunctiva of two healthy rabbits, produced death in both animals. The appearances of them were very similar to those of the above animal. 3. Inoculation with mouse’s dung, (13th Nov.) two rabbits. One died after 40 hours. The appearances were the same as in rabbit (2), except that the urine did not show any alteration. The blood of this animal was likewise crowded with bacteria and had infective properties. 4. The other materials, cobweb and ferret’s dung, did not produce any positive result when inoculated into rabbits, two for each. Since these first inoculations, I have repeated the inoculations with the drain-mud tod mouse’s dung in several animals, but have failed to produce anything; and this seems to me to give additional importance to the above-named positive results, for it proves that there was something present in those substances which has since lost its activity; further, that this “ something ” was not anything belonging to drain-mud or mouse's dung per se; these substances, as far as I am aware, do not produce any such results when inoculated into rabbits in infinitesimal doses; and, if they did, I do not think it probable that they would lose this power after being kept. The results of Dr. Klein’s observations and experiments appear to indicate that this line of inquiry is worth pursuing systematically. I am nqt disposed to say more than this. March 15th, 1880. EDWARD BALLARD.