4
Enclosure 3 in No. 1.
REPORT BY DR. J. G. THOMSON, DIRECTOR OF PROTOZOOLOGY, For the half-yeAR ENDING 30TH APRIL, 1921.
Two courses in protozoology, each of three weeks' duration, have been given as part of the three months' course held by the London School of Tropical Medicine. At the first course there were fifty-four students, and at the second, seventy-one.
The students who attend the course are qualified medical practitioners, and the main object of the teaching is to enable practitioners in the tropics to diagnose with some degree of certainty diseases of protozoal origin.
Immediately following the three weeks occupied by the general course a further period of three weeks is set aside for the teaching of advanced students. During the six months in question there have been sixteen advanced workers. The advanced course is almost entirely devoted to teaching the technique suitable for protozoal organisms, such as wet and dry fixation, staining films and sections, etc. In addition, the students are shown how to prepare media for the cultivation of protozoa, such as N.NN. medium, which requires the addition of blood, and are also shown how to manipulate cultures.
Dr. Andrew Connal, West Africa, did research work on blackwater fever. His observations were chiefly based on the Arneth's counts of the leucocytes in blood films collected from various sources.
Drs. J. G. Thomson and Andrew Robertson gave two microscopical demonstra- tions at laboratory meetings of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. The first demonstration was on Leishmania donovani from materials derived from a case of Kala Azar in the hospital. Stained smears of the spleen and marrow from a rib were shown. Cultures of the leptomonad forms of L. donovani were also exhibited, both as fired and stained preparations, and also" while actively motile.
The second demonstration was to illustrate the frequent occurrence of Charcot- Leyden crystals in the faces of amoebic dysentery cases, and also to point out the value of these crystals as 'an aïd to diagnosis. The specimens exhibited included smears of fæces from stools containing both free and encysted forms of Entamoebiu histolytica, and also smears from the surface of amoebic ulcers taken during sigmoidoscopic examinations. Micro-photographs and camera lucida drawings of Charcot-Leyden crystals in their relationship to E. histolytica were also shown.
The following paper was read by Drs. Thomson and Robertson at a meeting of the Royal Society of Medicine, Tropical Section:--
"The Value of Laboratory Report on Stools in Cases of Suspected Amoebic Dysentery and their Interpretation by the Clinician, with a Special Note on the Diagnostic Significance of Charcot-Leyden Crystals."
This paper, which was, to a large extent, based on results, obtained from the examination of stools for the Hospital, emphasized the great necessity for a close and intelligent co-operation between clinician and protozoologist, that the former should choose with care the materials to be sent for examination and should supply his colleague with all the necessary facts relating to the case, while the latter should make himself, as far as possible, au fait with the clinical history, and should render reports, which, whether positive or negative in their findings, would be of assist- ance in elucidating the diagnosis.
The authors dealt with the frequency with which Charcot-Leyden crystals are found in stools from patients suffering from amoebic dysentery, viz., twenty-five per cent. of cases with either free or encysted Entamoeba histolytica in the stools, and compared their results with those of Captain Acton, I.M.S., who found that twenty per cent. of his cases had crystals present.
Further, they stated that the presence of Charcot-Leyden crystals, while perhaps not absolutely diagnostic, "is strong presumptive evidence of a colitis of amoebic origin, and that, although such crystals had been described in helmintho- logical infections of the human gut, there was no evidence that, in these cases, the presence of Entamoebia histolytica had been excluded.
15th June 1921.
J. G. THOMSON. M.A., M.B., Ch.B.,
Director of Protozoology.
34321
5
No. 2.
THE LIVERPOOL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE to COLONIAL
SIR,
OFFICE.
(Received 11th July, 1921.)
Exchange Buildings, Liverpool, 6th July, 1921.
REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH APRIL, 1921.
I HAVE the honour to enclose, for the information of the Tropical Diseases Advisory Committee, the following reports of the School for the year ended 30th April, 1921, which have just been received from the Laboratory, on the work done in connexion with the Government grant:-
(1) Joint report of the Sir Alfred Jones (Professor J. W W. Stephens) and the Walter Myers Professor of Parasitology (Professor Warrington Yorke)
SIR,
(2) Report of the Professor of Entomology (Professor Robert Newstead).
I am, &c.
J.L. MCCARTHY,
Secretary,
Enclosure 1 in-No. 2.
1st May, 1921.
WE beg to submit the following report for the period 1st November, 1920, to 30th April, 1921..*----
Tuition.
The number of students attending the course of instruction for the Diploma of Tropical Medicine during the Lent term was eight, and ten veterinary students attended the special course in Veterinary Parasitology? **
Staff
In January, the following appointments were made :—
Mr. A. W. N. Pillers, F.R.C.V.S., Hon. Lecturer in Clinical Veterinary
Parasitology.
The late Mr. B. Whittam, M.R.C.V.S., Assistant Lecturer and Demonstrator
in Veterinary Parasitology.
Dr. R. H. Kennan, Lecturer in Tropical Sanitation.
Dr. S. Adler, House Physician of the Tropical Ward, Royal Infirmary.
In March, Dr. B. Blacklock was appointed to the newly founded Chair of
Tropical Diseases of Africa in the University.
Mr. W. Thelwall Thomas, Ch.M, F.R.C.S., was appointed Lecturer in
Tropical-Surgery.
Research
Details of investigations undertaken during this period will be found below under Publications.
The various lines of research include :→→→
(1) An inquiry into the time of occurrence of the malarial paroxysm.
(2) A minute investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death from malaria, in Liverpool, of a young girl. The infection was traced, in all probability, to a popular northern health resort.
.
(3) A continuation of researches on Anopheles plumbeus showing, for the first time, that this British mosquito is capable of transmitting malaria.
(4) A study of tree-hole breeding mosquitoes based upon a survey of two military camps near Grantham, in both of which cases of malaria had occurred during the War amongst soldiers who had never been out of England.
(5) An inquiry into the value of differential leucocyte counts.
(6) An analysis of filariasis statistics.--
(7) The study and description of new helminths.
Sierra Leone Research Laboratory.
In April, Professor Blacklock proceeded to Sierra Leone to inspect, the Sir Alfred Lewis Jones Tropical Laboratory now in course of erection on Tower [Hill, Freetown.
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Reference :-~~
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