Pulmonary tuberculosis and its complications, with special reference to diagnosis and treatment : for general practitioners and students / by Sherman G. Bonney ... With 189 original illustrations, including 20 in colors and 60 X-ray photographs.

  • Bonney, Sherman G. (Sherman Grant), 1864-1942.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Pulmonary tuberculosis and its complications, with special reference to diagnosis and treatment : for general practitioners and students / by Sherman G. Bonney ... With 189 original illustrations, including 20 in colors and 60 X-ray photographs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    34/842 (page 22)
    bacillus takes the primary stain and its ability to do this even without the exhibition of heat, a quality not possessed by the tubercle bacillus. According to James, there are now thirty microorganisms more or less resembling the tubercle bacillus in form, and almost equally resistant to acids. A close analogy has been suggested between these varieties and the tubercle bacillus, the essential difference pertaining to evolution- ary changes of adaptability in accordance with a varying environment. These microorganisms are not found, as a rule, within the body, though occasionally they do occur in the sputum, feces, or secretions from nose and pharynx and within the tonsillar crypts. They are distributed, to some extent, in the vegetable kingdom and in the excrement and secre- tions of animals accustomed to herbivorous diet. The most important of these microorganisms is the timothy-grass bacillus. Others have been found in milk, butter, manure, and earth subjected to fertilization. The grass bacillus, unlike the other varieties mentioned, will grow at the same temperature as the tubercle bacillus, and is thought to be equally resistant to external influences. Its discoverer, Moeller, claims to have been able to produce the same lesions with this agent as with the tubercle bacillus, but finds cultural differences and a much diminished virulence. The cultural characteristics of true tubercle bacilli consist of their very slow growth and the necessary maintenance of a high temperature, approximating that of the blood. Cultures may be ob- tained from tuberculous tissue and infected sputum. The usual method is to inoculate a small portion of the sputum or infective material into a healthy guinea-pig. After about three weeks the animal is killed, and, under strict aseptic precautions, the tubercles are dissected from the tissues and transplanted into culture-media. Colonies may also be produced by the direct implantation of tuberculous material into the various culture-media; this method, however, being quite difficult. This is done by thorough rubbing of the surface of the media with an infected platinum loop. The medium may be solid or liquid, and con- sist of blood-serum, bouillon, glycerin-agar, or glycerin bouillon. After a period of two or three weeks in the incubator at a temperature of 37° C, there is found upon the surface of the culture-medium a growth re- sembling an irregular cauliflower excrescence, yellowish white in color, and of a peculiarly dry or crumbly appearance. When cultivated in bouillon, a small scale from a solid culture-medium is transplanted to the liquid in such a manner that it floats upon the surface. By means of Hesse's Nlihrboden spread in Petri dishes the time may be shortened from ten days, which was required by the older methods, to four or five days, the fresh sputum being deposited upon the medium by drawing a portion of the slimy pus over its surface. Successive transplantation to new media results in more profuse vegetation and a more luxuriant flora. Some observers attribute a diminished virulence to cultures of rapid and luxuriant growth, and an increased pathogenic power to those difficult of cultivation and of scant growth. This is the opinion of Lartigau, as the result of experimental inoculation. The cultural vital- ity also of the tubercle bacillus is supposed to diminish with the rapidity of growth. Temperature greatly in excess of that of the blood is ex- tremely detrimental to its vital resistance. Its growth is destroyed at 42 ° p., and the bacillus quickly becomes extinct at 70° C. A distinctly inhib- itory influence upon its development is ascribed to sunlight, especially if