UIHistories Project: A History of the University of Illinois by Kalev Leetaru
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Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1882 [PAGE 150]

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144

B . e r y t h r o s p o r u s , Cohn.

Motile, short, slender rods, forming sometimes longer filaments in which originate numerous, oblong-oval, highly polished, dirty-red spores. On solutions of beef extract, putrid infusions of white of egg and of meat.

This species forms in part little swimming scales, in part a continuous pellicle; the filaments at length decompose into a gelatinous mass whereby the spores are liberated, which now united in little gelatinous masses sink to the bottom. The species is easily recognized by the dirty-red color of the spores. CB. of t u b e r c u l o s i s .

Cells very slender, cylindrical, about .00002 in. wide, .00010 to .00012 in. long, isolated or in chains of a few articles; motionless; sometimes containing spores which, from their size, cause slight fusiform swellings of the containing cell.

That this dreaded scourge of the human family as well as of the higher animals is infectious has of late been repeatedly shown, and the most careful search has been made for the organism which, from analogy, was supposed to constitute the materies morbi. After many failures on the part of numerous investigators, Dr. K.Koch, of Berlin, succeeded, by a special method of preparation, in discovering the minute species characterized above. In order to see the Bacillus it is first stained as follows: Smear a cover glass with the tuberculous matter (sputa or a small portion of tubercle), dry over a lamp; float the smeared cover several hours (24) on—a concentrated alcoholic solution of methylene-blue 1 part, a ten per cent, solution of potash 2 parts, distilled water 200 parts; wash, and treat with a few drops of aqueous solution of vesuvin. The Bacilli retain the blue, while the rest of the material does not. Now that we know what to look for, the organisms can be seen without staining, but they are very indistinct. The common violet stain of the accompanying material somewhat aids—the Bacilli showing white. Abundant experiments by Koch and others, have shown that these Bacilli are the true agents in the wasteful processes of the disease—the real cause of consumption in man and animals. It is also demonstrated that they do not develop in nature outside of the living body, hence that the disease is only communicated from the diseased; and, further, that the supposed hereditary peculiarities consist simply and only in the organic inability to resist infection. The children of consumptive parents may remain healthy if kept away from diseased individuals and their excretions]. [B. leprae, Hansen.

Cells slender, elongated, .00016 in. long, .00004 in. wide; isolated or united in chains of a few articles, often arranged side by side; motionless. In any or all tissues of the body of those afflicted with leprosy.

The investigations of Hansen, Neisser and others, have fully established the cause of this scourge of the human family in various parts of the world. The contagious character of the disease was among the earliest recognized, and has long been fully understood; but in what the contagion consists, has been entirely unknown until our own time. It is now added to the increasing list of known affectations due to the injurious activities of minute parasites which we are just beginning to know and understand. Bacillus leprae, like the preceding, is nearly invisible without staining, but is readily seen after treatment with aniline dyes in the manner just given]. [ B . of f o o t - r o t in s h e e p *

Cells cylindrical .00012 to .00016 in. long, isolated or more generally united in pairs, of which one cell is larger than the other; actively motile. In pustules in tissues of animals affected with above named disease.