163
Experiment No. VII.
Nature of Case.
Media.
No. of Tube.
Quantity of Period of
Blood. Incubation.
Result.
Acute, Pernicious
Blood-Se-
1
5 c.c.
14 days.
Sterile.
Beri-beri, 1 week rum Agar.
2
10 c.c.
14
19
ill.
5 c.c. 5 c.c.
14
1
71
21 days.
5 c.c.
21
57
Experiment No. VIII.
Nature of case.-A Chinese male adult, aged 50, suffering from acute edematous Beri-beri. The duration of the illness was approximately 14 days.
Method of Experimentation.-One litre flask containing sterile peptone bouillon was inoculated with 50-60 c.c. of this patient's blood. The technique as regards pre- vention of extraneous contamination was found to be rather more difficult than in the case of the test tube experiments. The flask was subsequently incubated at 37° C.
In 24 hrs.a diffuse turbidity of the broth was found with the formation of a delicate membrane on its surface.
In 72 hrs.-the turbidity was more pronounced with the accumulation of a considerable amount of greyish-white granular deposit. The surface membrane was now found to be thick and wrinkled of a greyish-white colour, and covering the entire surface of the bouillon. It was tough and with difficulty could be broken up on severe agitation of the bouillon.
Microscopically--the growth was found to consist of rod-shaped organisms. These were found to be single or in pairs, and occasionally in threads, they were mobile, and could be easily stained with any ordinary dye. Spore formation was present. Subsequent plate and sub-cultivation on different media shewed this micro-organism to be the only micro-organism present, and it was later identified as the Bac. mesentericus vulgatus or potato bacillus, which is so commonly found in nature, and has no relationship to the disease under consideration.
Experiment No. IX.
Nature of case.-A Chinese male adult suffering from acute Beri-beri of 10 days' duration, was bled in the usual way, and according to the technique already described. A flask of peptone bouillon was inoculated with about 30-40 c.c. of blood (venous) which was introduced into the flask and well mixed with the broth.
Subsequently the flask was incubated at 37-C.
After 24 hrs. the bouillon was turbid and the flask shewed the presence of a granular deposit.
Microscopically a drop of the bouillon shewed the presence of cocci and rod-stained preparations of this medium shewed the cocci lying singly, in pairs, and in small groups. They stained well by GRAM's method and generally resembled staphylococci. The rod-shaped organisms were found to be identical with those found in Experiment No. VIII.
The cocci were isolated in pure culture and proved to be a mixture of staphylococcus pyogenes albus and aureus, organisms which are found ubiquitous in nature and on the body surfaces of all human beings.
The micro-organisms present in this flask were utilised for the purpose of experiment.