On the "sero-diagnosis" of typhoid fever / by A. Sheridan Delépine and E.J. Sidebotham.

  • Delépine, Sheridan, 1855-1921.
Date:
[1896]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the "sero-diagnosis" of typhoid fever / by A. Sheridan Delépine and E.J. Sidebotham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    diagnosis of typhoid fever by this method. I think how- ever, that it might have been better for him to do what we have done in Manchester before using the method for public health work. Immediately after reading Dr. Widal's com- munication to the Paris Societe Medicale des Hdpitaux9 I spoke of it to Dr. Niven. I was, however, anxious not to use tne method before I had had a sufficient personal experience of it, based on the examination of typical cases of typhoid fever and other fevers. Dr. Niven offered at once to give me all the help he could by obtaining blood and secretions from cases received at the Monsall Fever Hospital. Dr Marsden, the resident medical officer at the hospital, showed himself very willing to give us all the assistance possible. Before the end of July we had already obtained results which could leave no doubt as to the value of the method. The number of cases recorded in France by Widal, Widai and Bicard, Achard, Courmont, and others had already at that time reached a sufficient size to inspire confidence. Some simple experiments which I made at the beginning of this inquiry convinced me of the very close relations existing between the phenomena which have been described successively by Charrin, Roger, Metchnikoff, Bordet, Gruber and Durham, and others. As these may help the readers who have not paid special attention to this branch of bacteriology I will describe some of them briefly. 1. To 5 cubic centimetres of neutral peptone bouillon, 0 5, 1 or 2 cubic centimetres of the serum of an animal immunised against typhoid fever are added, then the tube is inoculated with typhoid bacilli, and incubated at a tempera- ture of 37° C A control tube of bouillon without serum is inoculated at the same time with the same quantity of typhoid bacilli and incubated in the same way. At the end of ten hours the bouillon containing no serum will be evenly turbid from the growth of the bacillus. At the end of the same time the bouillon to which serum has been added will be clear or nearly clear, and the bacilli will be found to have formed a precipitate at the bottom of the tube, where they form a number of small clumps. 2. The same experiment is repeated, with this difference, that the blood of a patient suffering from typhoid fever at the end of the third week of the disease is added to the bouillon of one tube instead of the serum of an immunised animal. The results are the same, though in some cases the reaction is not quite so clear. 3. To ten. twenty, or fifty drops of a twenty-four hours old culture of typhoid bacillus in neutral bouillon (or to a similar quantity of an emulsion of the bacillus grown on » June 26th. 1896.