Upon an anti-cholera serum / by Allan Macfadyen.

  • Macfayden, Allan, 1860-1907.
Date:
[1906]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Upon an anti-cholera serum / by Allan Macfadyen. 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.

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    cutaneously. The effects were the same as on peritoneal injection—congestion o£ the intestine, hypermmia of the organs, and hemorrhages in the stomach. The doses killing subcutaneously were two cubic centimetres and one cubic centimetre. In the instances tested 0 • 5 and 0 • 2 cubic centi- metre failed to kill. The results were not so constant as those obtained with the smaller peritoneal doses. The endotoxin likewise killed rabbits acutely on intra- venous injection. The symptoms were collapse, occurring about three-quarters of an hour after the injection, acute diarrhoea, and a rapid fall of temperature ending in death, at times within one hour. From the most virulent cultures 2'0th and x’0th cubic centimetre of the cell juices killed acutely with the above symptoms. The average lethal dose ranged from 0'3 to 0'5 cubic centimetre. The filtered juices were also toxic—e.g., 0'2 and O'5 cubic centimetre of a filtered juice proved acutely fatal. The rabbit was more tolerant to subcutaneous injections—e.g., one, two, and three cubic centimetres of the endotoxin did not kill but produced considerable local swelling and induration. The guinea- pig proved more uniformly susceptible and was therefore mainly employed in the subsequent serum tests. The endotoxin was acutely fatal to goats on intravenous injection. A goat died within 12 hours after an injection of T’5th cubic centimetre (about one milligramme). A second goat developed persistent diarrhoea after a dose of yj^th cubic centimetre (about ^th milligramme). In three other instances TJ5th cubic centimetre rendered the animals ill, whilst -g^th and j^th cubic centimetre produced acute diarrhoea and death. These examples indicate the potent nature of the cholera endotoxin when introduced into the blood stream of a susceptible animal, ^th milligramme of the material inducing marked toxic effects. In all the above experiments the freshly prepared endo- toxin was injected. The juices deteriorate in toxic power on keeping and are readily modified by heat, as will be seen from the following experiment:— Toxic Cholera Cell Juice, Half hour at 55° C. Half hour at 60° C. Unheated. Guinea-pig: l'O c.c. alive. Guinea-pig: l-0 c.c. alive. Guinea-pig: l'O c.c. dead. Guinea-pig: 0'5 c.c. alive. Guinea-pig: 0'5 c.c. alive. Guinea-pig: 0'5 c.c. dead. Guinea-pig : 0'3 c.c. alive. Guinea-pig: 0'3 c.c. alive. Guinea-pig -. 0'3 c.c. dead.