Splenic fever

“ From the antagonism existing between the physiological peculiarities of the splenic bacilli and the septic vibrio, it results that if, in order to inoculate an animal capable of contracting the fever, a drop of blood be taken from one that has just died of it, and if the operation is performed during the first few hours after death, it is certain to communicate to that animal splenic fever, and splenic fever only. ”

“ In the body of an animal which has died of splenic fever, putrefaction is still more rapid, because, through the action of the disease, the blood is already in a great degree deprived of oxygen at the time of death. Nothing is more striking than the rapid inflation and almost immediate putrefaction of animals which have succumbed to splenic fever. Of all the vibrios ready to pass from the intestinal canal into the network of mesenteric veins which surround the canal those which seem to take the foremost place are the septic vibrios. ”

“ I regret to be unable, from want of time, to show you that all these attenuated forms of virus may very easily, by a physiological artifice, be made to recover their original maximum virulence. The method I have just explained of obtaining the vaccine of splenic fever was no sooner made known, than it was very extensively employed to prevent the splenic affection. In France we lose every year by splenic fever animals of the value of 20,000,000 francs. ”

“ The two diseases may be [197] developed simultaneously in the inoculated animal, but generally one precedes the other. The septic contagium is the quickest in its action; it generally causes death before the splenic fever has had time to develop itself and to produce appreciable effects.
We are now in a position to explain all the contradictory results obtained by MM. Jaillard and Leplat on one side, and by Davaine on the other. In a country which splenic fever had made famous, the Département d'Eure-et-Loir, they had asked for a little splenic fever blood. ”

“ In splenic fever or splenic apoplexy, the most marked alterations observed after death are—the effects of rapid decomposition, evidenced by the foul odour, disengagement of gas beneath the skin and in the tissues and cavities of the body, yellow or yellowish-red gelatinous exudation into and between the muscles, effusion of citron or rust-coloured fluid in various cavities, extravasations of blood and local congestions throughout the body, the blood in the vessels generally being very dark and tar-like. ”

“ From 1849 to 1852 a commission of the Medical Association of Eure-et-Loir made a great number of inoculations, applied other tests, and proved that the splenic fever of the sheep is communicable to other sheep, to the horse, to the cow, and to the rabbit; that the splenic fever of the horse is communicable to the horse and to the sheep; that the splenic fever of the cow is communicable to the sheep, to the horse, and to the rabbit. As for the malignant pustule in man, no doubt remained that it must arise from the same cause as splenic fever in animals. ”

“ It is, then, absolutely proved, that if splenic fever germs exist, as they often do, in the light earth which covers the pits in which animals dead of that disease lie buried, these germs result from the disintegration by rain of the little excremental cylinders deposited by the earth-worms. The dust of this disintegrated earth spreads itself over the grasses on a level with the soil, and thus it is that animals come to find on the pasture-field, and in particular kinds of forage, the germs of splenic fever by which they are infected. ”

“ In typhoid fever the cold arrests the fermentation, which may be regarded as at once the expression and the cause of the disease, just as, by an inverse process, the heat of the body arrests the development of the splenic fever microbe in the hen. ”

“ At the present time, science, working in the light of clear knowledge, has attacked splenic fever and has beaten it; it is attacking hydrophobia with no mean promise of success; sooner or later it will deal, in the same way, with diphtheria, typhoid and scarlet fever. ”

“ The only difference is that the parasite of splenic fever can only be seen by means of a rather powerful microscope. Here, then, is a disease in the highest degree virulent, due in its first cause to the infinitely little. Pasteur laid hold of and isolated this terrible virus. It was in a microscopic parasite, and in it alone, that the virulence of splenic fever resided. A great scientific fact had been gained. A virus might consist not of amorphous matter, but of microscopic beings. The virulence was due to their life. ”

“ Easily inoculable and fatal to the ox, the sheep, the rabbit, and the guinea pig, splenic fever is very rare in the dog and in the pig. These must be inoculated several times before they contract the disease, and even then it is not always possible to produce it. Again, there are some creatures which are never assailable by it. It can never be taken by fowls. In vain they are inoculated with a considerable quantity of splenic blood; it has no effect upon them. [209] This invulnerability had very much struck Pasteur and his two assistants, Joubert and Chamberland. ”

“ An attenuated splenic fever virus which could cause no danger of disease or death to guinea-pigs of a year, or a month, or even a week old, could kill a little guinea-pig just born, or one or two days old. The attenuated microbe could multiply itself in the blood of so young an animal. We can well imagine that in an animal, scarcely formed, the power of oxygenation of the blood globules is not as yet capable of [247] preventing the aerobic microbe from turning to its own account the oxygen of the blood. The disease does its work and death supervenes. ”

“ It is, however, prudent to vaccinate every year, and to select for performing the operation a period when splenic fever has not yet become developed—in March and April. If the vaccinating is postponed until the fever is in the sheepfolds, there is the risk of attributing to vaccination the losses which in reality belong to the natural disease. Just as human vaccination cannot preserve from small-pox a patient who is already under the influence of small-pox, so the splenic vaccinations are powerless against a fever already in process of incubation. ”

“ The presence of a parasite having been brought to public notice in the blood of animals suffering from splenic fever, at the very time when Pasteur had shaken the belief in spontaneous generation, people [253] grew accustomed to the idea that the stricken animals might have contracted the germs of the malady from the outer world, without any spontaneous birth, strictly so called, of the disease. This opinion was strengthened by a knowledge of the spores of the splenic bacillus. ”

“ It was apparent that the oxygenation which attenuated the venom of the bacilli of chicken cholera was impossible with those of splenic fever if the bacilli of the latter disappeared within a week, leaving the spores behind. But Pasteur had discovered before this that, unless the temperature of a fowl were lowered artificially, inoculation with the microbes of splenic fever would not produce the disease. From this he argued that, as the heat of the fowl's body was sufficient to resist the contagion, the bacilli themselves must be extremely sensitive to variations in temperature. ”

“ If we can now reproduce the original disease in other animals by infection with these isolated bacteria, the chain of evidence is complete beyond cavil and doubt. But this last step may not be the least difficult, as many diseases of mankind can not be transferred to animals, or only to some few species.
If we apply these rigid requirements, there are not many diseases of man whose bacterial origin is beyond doubt. As the most unequivocal instance, we can mention splenic fever, or anthrax, a disease of domestic animals, which sometimes attacks man, and is then known as malignant pustule. ”

“ They proved by a series of experiments that the microbe of splenic fever does not develop when subjected to a temperature of 44° Centigrade. Now, the temperature of birds being between 41 and 42 degrees, may it not be, said Pasteur, that the fowls are protected from the disease because their blood is too warm—not far removed from the temperature at which the splenic fever organism can no longer be cultivated? Might not the vital resistance encountered in the living fowl suffice to bridge over the small gap between 41-42, and 44-45 degrees? ”

“ One of the most valuable results of the study of these organisms is the discovery that by cultivation the virulence of some, at least, can be so mitigated that when inoculated they produce only slight and non-fatal symptoms, the development of which in a given animal is nevertheless protective against future attacks of the original disease. By cultivating the organisms of splenic fever at a temperature of 108°, it is found that filaments are produced but not spores, and that by repeated cultivation this growth becomes altered as regards its properties of causing disease. ”

“ The infective agent, which is not known, is not undoubtedly communicable from man to man, but it is carried from place to place, and it clings to ships and buildings; it thrives in hot, moist, crowded places. The priest should disinfect his hands after visiting a case.
Anthrax, called also wool-sorter's disease and splenic fever, is a very fatal disease, and the bacillus is communicable to any one through an abrasion of the skin, through the intestines by swallowing it, or through the lungs by breathing it in in dust. Disinfect the hands and the shoes after visiting a patient. ”

“ It is comparatively easy for skilled observers to detect the presence of micro-organisms, and, whenever uniformity of appearance is demonstrable in connection with a given disease, a decided addition has been made to our knowledge. For reasons above given, the next point, viz., the determining whether the organisms are the cause of the disease, is surrounded with great difficulties. The discoveries, however, with regard to splenic fever strongly support the view that bacteria are the efficient agents of contagious diseases. ”

“ Experiments on sheep, performed by Pasteur, the results of which were confirmed by application on a large scale, gave evidence that immunity against splenic fever may be acquired by systematic inoculation of the attenuated virus very much as small-pox is prevented by vaccination.
Various herbivora, chiefly horses, sheep, and goats, are exposed to a disease called "glanders," which ends by death in most cases. White mice are safe against it. ”

“ He laid hold of the murderous virus of splenic fever, and succeeded in rendering it, not only harmless to life, but a sure protection against the virus in its most concentrated form. No man, in my opinion, can work at these subjects so rapidly as Pasteur without falling into errors of detail. ”

“ From the moment when all belief in the spontaneous generation of the parasite is rejected, attention is naturally drawn to the possible consequences which may arise from burying in the earth animals which have died of splenic fever. ”

“ Malignant pustule, which is simply splenic fever, affects shepherds, butchers, and tanners, who handle the flesh and hide of tainted animals. Inoculation with the bacillus almost always occurs in consequence of a wound or scratch on the hands or face. ”

“ Koch found that to produce its characteristic effects the contagium of splenic fever must enter the blood; the virulently festive spleen of a diseased animal may be eaten with impunity by mice. On the other hand, the disease refuses to be communicated by inoculation to dogs, partridges, or sparrows. In their blood Bacillus anthracis ceases to act as a ferment. Pasteur announced more than six years ago the propagation of the vibrios of the silkworm disease called flacherie, both by fission and by spores. ”

“ The substance being one which nature creates very slowly, no subsequent introduction of the bacilli, however virulent, can produce the disease until such time shall have elapsed that a new supply of the substance shall have been secreted. In this way he accounts for the fact that vaccination will protect from small-pox for a more or less defined period of time.
Pasteur hastened to apply his discovery of the attenuation of the virus of chicken cholera to the virus of splenic fever. ”

“ When it is possible a sandy soil should be chosen for the purpose, or any poor calcareous soil, dry, and easily desiccated—in a word, soil not suited to the existence of earth-worms.' M. Tisserand, Director of Agriculture, has remarked that splenic fever is unknown in the region of the Savarts of Champagne, although it is surrounded by countries invaded by the disease. If the conditions of commerce introduce splenic fever, it is but a passing accident. ”

“ Susceptibility to diseases is as variable as sensitiveness to vegetable and animal poisons. Judging from the current opinion that putrefying animal matter is the principal bearer and transporter of infectious germs, we are forced to ascribe a high degree of immunity to certain animals which, like swine, ducks, chickens, and rats, are accustomed to select their food from places where such matter is accumulated. Predisposition for splenic fever is stronger among herbivora than among carnivora; birds of prey seem to be quite free from it. ”

“ Typhoid fever can of course be known if rose-spots, a splenic tumor, or the characteristic delirium are manifested, or if the fever-curve conforms to the type; but in children all these symptoms may be negative; even the fever has great variability. If fever is continued beyond ten days, and is accompanied by progressive anæmia and emaciation and debility, the attack is enteric fever if all local causes of fever can be excluded. ”