Cellular toxins, or, The chemical factors in the causation of disease / by Victor C. Vaughan and Frederick G. Novy.

  • Vaughan, Victor C. (Victor Clarence), 1851-1929
Date:
1903
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Cellular toxins, or, The chemical factors in the causation of disease / by Victor C. Vaughan and Frederick G. Novy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHAPTER IV. THE BACTERIAL POISONS OF SOME OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. V E will now give our attention to the chemical poisons of some of the infectious diseases, and in doing this we will illustrate, sub- stantiate and extend the statements made in preceding chapters. Anthrax.—The definition of an infectious disease, as we have given it, is illustrated by the facts which have been learned concerning the causation of anthrax, which has probably been more thoroughly studied than any other infectious disease. Kausch taught that this disease has its origin in paralysis of the nerves of respiration, but as to the cause of this paralysis he gave no information. Delafond thought that anthrax has its origin in the influence of the chemical composition of the soil affecting the food of animals and leading to abnormal nutrition. The investigations of Gerlach, in 1845, demon- strated the contagious nature of anthrax, which was emphasized by Husinger in 1850 and accepted by Virchow in 1855. However, as early as 1849 Pollender found numerous rod-like microorgan- isms in the blood of animals sick with this disease, and his observa- tion was confirmed by Brauell, who produced the disease in healthy animals by inoculations with matter taken from an anthrax pustule. Attempts were made to ridicule the idea that this organism might be the cause of the disease but, in 1863, Davaine showed that these rod-like bodies must have some causal relation to the disease, inas- much as his experiments proved that inoculation into animals of the blood of those sick with anthrax, produced the disease only when taken at a time when the blood contained these organisms. He also demonstrated beyond any question that these rod-like bodies are bacteria, capable of growth and multiplication. The conclusions of this investigator were combated by many; but Pasteur, Koch, Bollinger, De Bary, and others studied the morphology and life history of these organisms, and then came the brilliant results of Pasteur in securing protection against inoculated anthrax by the vac- cination of healthy animals with the modified germ and subsequent inoculation with the virulent form. Then the question arose, How do these bacilli produce anthrax ? and in answer to this question the various theories which we have mentioned were proposed. In 1877, Pasteur filtered the blood of animals sick with anthrax, also anthrax cultures, through porcelain and injected the germ-free filtrate into animals without inducing the disease, and concluded