Medical report / Federated Malay States.

  • Federated Malay States. Medical Department.
Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical report / Federated Malay States. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/34 (page 16)
    No drainage work was done by tlie department in Perak, but surveys were made of Gropeng and Batu Gajah, a scheme and estimate being made and passed by the Malaria Advisory Board for the drainage of the latter. One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three feet of concrete drain and 8,537 feet of sub-soil pipes were laid in Pudu Dam at a cost of $4,772.82. This was paid for by the Executive Engineer, Town, from vote for Java Street extension and filling Pudu Dam. The Executive Engineer, Mr. F. D. Evans, went on leave on lltli March, and Mr. H. L. Bennett acted during his absence. Two Assistant Engineers joined the department during the year: Mr. R. G. Trower on 26tli February, and Mr. T M. Gordon on 7tli May. Subsequent to the latter’s arrival, Mr. Mauleffinch was on the staff as a temporary Engineer from 1st February, 1914, to 6th June, 1914. The unexpended balance on the votes are due to the stoppage of work when war broke out, with the exception of the drainage of ravines at 4tli mile, Damansara Road, where the drainage is due to savings on the original estimate. Details of work done under the supervision of the Executive Engineer, Malaria Advisory Board, during the year will be seen in appendix C. INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH. Dr. Fraser, in his report, notes the results of experiments undertaken to show that beri-beri is not transferred from one individual to another by means of pediculi, bugs, etc. Some interesting experiments were made to cultivate the leprosy bacillus on media prepared from preserved fish ; at the close of the year no culture had been obtained. Twenty-five leprosy inoculation experiments were performed without producing results. Expei'iments were conducted with Dr. Kedrowsky’s culture which did not give evidence that the acid-fast bacillus of Kedrowsky is the leprosy bacillus. Dr. Fletcher made investigations to determine if the value of the Wassermann reaction, as employed in the Institute Laboratory for the diagnosis of syphilis, is discounted by the occurrence of positive reactions in lepers—samples of blood were collected from the adjacent leper asylum—the sera were inactivated a few hours after the blood had been obtained and the tests carried out within 24 hours of the time at which the samples Avere taken—the method adopted was that of Browning, Cruickshank and McKenzie. In the place of the anti-oxhtemolytic system used by the authors of the method an anti-human system was employed; for purposes of comparison, 110 inmates of the District Hospital were examined for syphilis—the results were striking—the percentage of positive Wassermann reactions in the leper group was more than twice as large as that obtained in the control group of non- leprous patients. Dr. Fletcher remarks that, owing to the comparatively small number of cases investigated, it cannot be concluded on these grounds alone that the larger number obtained in the former group was due to the action of some factor other than syphilis. The luetin reaction was also applied to some cases of leprosy—there was not a single positive luetin reaction among the lepers while among a control group there was ho fewer than eleven. The evidence of the luetin reaction as applied to these cases of leprosy is negative evidence and too much value should not be attached to it, but, as far as it goes, it is opposed to the view that positive Wassermann reactions in leprosy are due to syphilitic infection. 8UMMAKY. 1. One hundred lepers were examined by Browning, Cruickshank and McKenzie’s modification of the Wassermann reaction, with positive results in 22 cases. The amount of complement deviated was, in some cases, exceptionally large. 2. in a control group of 110 non-leprous persons there were eleven positive reactions. 3. In only one of the lepers was there visible evidence of former venereal disease but thirty-three of the lepers admitted that they'had suffered from syphilis or from chancres, and of these 33, thirteen reacted positively, while only nine of the remaining 66 gave positive reactions. 4. In the control group, 21 admitted former syphilitic infection and of these eight reacted positively—among the remaining 89, who denied syhpilis, there were three positive reactions. 5. There Avere twelve positive reactions among 44 cases of tubercular leprosy and ten positive reactions among 56 cases of the anaesthetic type. 6. The average duration of the disease, among the 22 lepers who reacted positively* ay as four years and eight months, as compared with an average of three years and eight months for the 78 patients avIio reacted negatively; but among the latter there were many old-standing cases. 7. Seventeen of the 22 positive cases Avere in an advanced stage of leprosy and in some of them the disease Avas progressing; but among those lepers who reacted negatively there were also many advanced and progressing cases. 8. Serum from the lesions in 10 of the lepers who reacted positively was examined by dark-ground illumination but in no case was the Treponema pallidum found.