. Diseases of metabolism and of the blood, animal parasites, toxicology. Constitutional diseases; Metabolism; Blood; Medical parasitology; Poisons. BACTERIOLOGICAL EXAMINATION 291 number of diseases in which, particularly in especially severe cases, the pathogenic agents enter the blood. Formerly we contented ourselves with a microscopic investigation of fresh or stained blood to determine the presence of bacteria. But this process should only be resorted to for the determination of the spirilli of relapsing fever, or, perhaps, of the bacilli of anthrax. In other cases it may lead to errors, f
. Diseases of metabolism and of the blood, animal parasites, toxicology. Constitutional diseases; Metabolism; Blood; Medical parasitology; Poisons. BACTERIOLOGICAL EXAMINATION 291 number of diseases in which, particularly in especially severe cases, the pathogenic agents enter the blood. Formerly we contented ourselves with a microscopic investigation of fresh or stained blood to determine the presence of bacteria. But this process should only be resorted to for the determination of the spirilli of relapsing fever, or, perhaps, of the bacilli of anthrax. In other cases it may lead to errors, first because of the small number of germs that may be present, and, secondly, because confusion with accidental bacterial contaminations may readily occur. It is therefore advisable to puncture a vein of the arm under strict antiseptic precautions, to withdraw 1 to 2 of blood, and to prepare cultures, best in bouillon, or to determine by animal experiments the probable presence of pathogenic bacteria. In this manner we are able to determine with certainty in the circulating blood the presence of streptococci, staphylococci, pneumococci, the bacilli of enteric fever, of the plague, of tuberculosis and others. [Typhoid bacilli have repeatedly been cultivated from the blood of doubtful feljrile cases before the Widal reaction had appeared. Hence this procedure may be of great value in obscure cases. The same is true of the cultivation of pneumo- cocci from the blood in obscure pneumococeus infections and " central pneu- ;âEd.] The determination of the pathogenic agents just mentioned can only be designated as an auxiliary factor in diagnosis, but the recognition of spirilli in the blood is the only means for a positive diagno- sis of relapsing fever. As a rule this determina- tion is very easy, for the peculiar curved form of the spirilli (see Fig. 17) precludes confusion with other organisms. Their number is usually very large; our detection of them is grea
Size: 1559px × 1602px
Photo credit: © The Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectblood, booksubjectpoi
