On the remedies used by the Caffres to prevent blood poisoning from anthrax / by R. Peel Ritchie.

  • Ritchie, Robert Peel, 1835-1902.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the remedies used by the Caffres to prevent blood poisoning from anthrax / by R. Peel Ritchie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    9/12 (page 7)
    Booh of the Practice of Equine Medicine, 1883. He gives a full and excellent account of anthrax, its history, literature, geographical distribution, and pathology. I quote the following from his book (page 183) as to the intro- duction of the disease by ingestion:— Deductions derived from experiment and the behaviour of the bacillus anthracis in relation to artificially produced disease, compel us to subscribe to_ the theory of its being communicable by the alimentary tract, the air-passages, or by cutaneous inoculation, and, though generally fixed, the virus may be more rarely volatile, that it is transmissible is now beyond dispute. He further remarks: To the condition of receptivity of the species and individual we are inclined to attach the utmost importance, and from our observation we are led to look to this for much explanation as to the apparently erratic behaviour of the anthrax virus. After referring to the effects of temperature on the vitality of the filaments and spores, he states at page 195,—I have myself partaken daily for some days of roasted beef from an ox killed because affected with splenic fever, without unpleasant results. Boiling for two minutes entirely destroys rods and spores in all conditions—fresh or old, dry or moist; and at page 198 his fifth deduction is that the boiling point is fatal to the spores and rods. The mere fact that these Caffres can eat and enjoy one of their voracious meals, after cooking the flesh of an anthrax animal, is of small importance after learning Mr Eobertson's personal and experimental experience, but I submit a case for further inquiry as to the effect of protective means has been made out. Although we do not in this country recognise any special therapeutic quality in the indigenous species of Matricaria and Teucriuin, still it may be kept in remembrance that, in addition to their stomachic and tonic properties, chamomiles, though inferior to many other medi- cines, in the words of Pareira, as a remedy for intermittents . . . have gained considerable celebrity. I should not wish to be understood as advocating the use of the flesh of anthrax infected cattle. My intention has been to raise inquiry as to the protective means to be used by those who unfor- tunately have to handle the diseased carcases and hides; and the subject is one to which the attention of the Colonial Office should be called, so that, in conjunction with the authorities at the Cape, full inquiry may be made in the districts where this protective means is used. Before I resume my seat may I add this deduction, although not strictly connected with the subject of my paper, that heat is the best destroyer, not only of the rods, but of tbe germs of the anthrax bacillus. Experience recorded so far back as the year 1873 (in the Veterinarian for December), has also proved the danger which may follow the burying of these diseased animals if in such a position that the water-drainage can affect the pond from