32 QUATERCENTENARY STUDIES IN PATHOLOGY 



disappeared within twenty-four hours, the lakin^ beinjy extreme. The 

 colouring matter of the corpuscles is not only liberated, but their stroma 

 is dissolved, so that often not a vestige of a corpuscle can be recognised. 



Curiously, the bacillus of chorea paralytica is not nearly so powerful 

 a ha^molytic as the bacillus of either of the two diseases mentioned. 

 The blood-corpuscles of a sheep dying of Louping-ill are preserved, and, 

 consequently, there is an absence of blood-staining of the carcase, while, 

 as just remarked, in the case of Braxy or Disease " A " there may not be 

 a coloured blood-corpuscle remaining, and the carcase is deeply blood- 

 stained. 



It is a common fancy among practitioners of medicine that a large 

 proportion of anaemias is to be accounted for by some derangement of 

 the intestinal functions, and Hunter, as is well known, holds to the idea 

 that pernicious anaemia is caused by an organism, probably a strepto- 

 coccus, present in the intestine, and that this organism may be derived 

 from carious teeth or patches of stomatitis. 



However true this may be in general principle, it seems even likelier 

 that the organism which hsemolyses the corpuscles is of the nature of a 

 bacillus, anaerobic in its habit, rather than a coccus form. 



I am led to this belief by the intense haemolytic tendencies displayed 

 by some of the anaerobic bacilli recovered from the human intestine. 

 Thus, in the dejecta of persons suffering from progressive anaemia, I 

 have found an anaerobic bacillus which has a most pronounced haemolytic 

 action. In one instance, the individual, a man, was supposed to be 

 suffering from pernicious anaemia, so rapid and progressive was the 

 destruction of blood-corpuscles and so characteristic were the abnormal 

 forms. Recovery, however, ultimately took place. 



The dejecta, from which the anaerobe was derived, were passed into a 

 sterile vessel and were examined within an hour or two afterwards. 

 From them two sets of cultures on glucose-beef-tea were started, the one 

 aerobic, the other anaerobic. The idea was to discover whether the 

 cultures so obtained had any effect in destroying the coloured corpuscles 

 of human blood. The dejecta were found to be swarming with a con- 

 fused mass of all kinds of organism, and at least one of them was 

 sporing. 



The aerobic growth was not purified, and presented, of course, a 

 medley of different forms. It was desired, in the first place, to ascertain 



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