Post-graduate course at Queen's College, Birmingham : two lectures on the general pathology of tubercle, with especial reference to the question of infection / by Gilbert Barling.

  • Barling, Harry Gilbert, 1855-1940.
Date:
[1891]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Post-graduate course at Queen's College, Birmingham : two lectures on the general pathology of tubercle, with especial reference to the question of infection / by Gilbert Barling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    12/24 (page 12)
    were killed three days later; in every instance the animals were found to be tuberculous. (Some photographs lent by Mr. Watson Cheyne were here shewn to illustrate experimental infection of joints.) It is convenient here to mention that several experimenters have used ordinary tubercle from lung and other organs for the purpose of inoculating or otherwise infecting animals, and the proof is overwhelming that tuberculosis can thus be set up. Accepting then the proposition that tubercle bacilli alone can give rise to tuberculosis, the question which next meets us is, whence come the bacilli ? Must they be obtained from the body of some man or animal that has already fallen a victim to the disease, or can they arise de novo, or do they develop from some other micro-organism ? Whilst it is perfectly certain that many bacteria concerned in producing disease can flourish outside the human or animal body on putrefying animal and vegetable matter, it is equally clear that the tubercle bacillus cannot do so. It requires first of all a very special nourishment; secondly it needs a constant tem- perature of at least 86° Fahrenheit to enable it to grow; and supposing both the above conditions complied with, the tubercle bacillus would, owing to its slow development, be stifled and overrun by the more rapid developing bacteria around it and its growth would be choked, as has been established in artificial cultivations. The next point is, do they arise de novo ? that is, do we accept spontaneous generation ? In answer to this enquiry I may say that there is not a tittle of reliable evidence to shew that this is possible. Lastly, do other bacteria develop into tubercle bacilli ? Although it has been assumed that this is possible no facts sup- port it whilst there are many against it; for example, no such transformation has been established in the case of other bacteria. Again, cultivations of tubercle bacilli for two years on blood serum have failed to shew any deviations in the naked eye appearances of the cultivations, in the microscope and staining characters of the bacilli, or in their virulence when inoculated.