Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883

V >> Various >> Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

There is no report of the full development found in the urine, sputa,
and sweat. Again, Dr. B. or Dr. Safford did not communicate the disease
to unprotected persons by exposure. While then I feel satisfied that the
Gemiasmas produce ague, it is by no means proved that no other cryptogam
may not produce malaria. I observed the plants Dr. B. described, but
eliminated them from my account. I hope Dr. B. will pursue this subject
farther, as the field is very large and the observers are few.

When my facts are upset, I then surrender.

"NOTES ON MARSH MIASM (LIMNOPHYSALIS HYALINA). BY ABR. FREDRIK EKLUND,
M.D., STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, PHYSICIAN OF THE FIRST CLASS IN THE SWEDISH
ROYAL NAVY.

[Footnote: Translated from the _Archives de la Medecine Navale_, vol.
xxx., no. 7, July, 1878, by A. Sibley Campbell, M.D., Augusta, Ga.]

Before giving a succinct account of the discovery of paludal miasma and
of its natural history, I ought in the first place to state that I
have not had the opportunity of reading or studying the great original
treatise of Professor Salisbury. I am acquainted with it only through a
resume published in the _American Journal of the Medical Sciences_
for the year 1866, new series, vol. li. p. 51. At the beginning of my
investigations I was engaged in a microscopic examination of the water
and mud of swampy shores and of the marshes, also with a comparison of
their microphytes with those which might exist in the urine of patients
affected with intermittent fevers. Nearly three months passed without
my being able to find the least agreement, the least connection. Having
lost nearly all hope of being able to attain the end which I had
proposed, I took some of the slime from the marshes and from the masses
of kelp and Confervae from the sea shores, where intermittent fevers are
endemic, and placed them in saucers under the ordinary glass desiccators
exposed on a balcony, open for twenty-four hours, the most of the time
under the action of the burning rays of the sun. With the evaporated
water deposited within the desiccators, I proceeded to an examination,
drop by drop. I at length found that which I had sought so long, but
always in vain.

The parasite of intermittent fever, which I have termed Limnophysalis
hyalina, and which has been observed before me by Drs. J. Lemaire and
Gratiolet (_Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires de l'Academie des Sciences_,
Paris, 1867, pp. 317 and 318) and B. Cauvet (_Archives de Medecine
Navale_, November, 1876), is a fungus which is developed directly
from the mycelium, each individual of which possesses one or several
filaments, which are simple or dichotomous, with double outlines,
extremely fine, plainly marked, hyaline, and pointed. Under favorable
conditions, that is, with moisture, heat, and the presence of vegetable
matter in decomposition, the filaments of mycelium increase in length.
From these long filaments springs the fungus. The sporangia, or more
exactly the conidia, are composed of unilocular vesicles, perfectly
colorless and transparent, which generally rise from one or both sides
of the filaments of the mycelium, beginning as from little buds or eyes;
very often several (two to three) sporangia occur placed one upon the
other, at least on one side of the mycelium.

With a linear magnitude of 480, the sporangia have a transverse diameter
of one to five millimeters, or a little more in the larger specimens.
The filaments of mycelium, under the same magnitude, appear exceedingly
thin and finer than a hair. The shape of the conidia, though presenting
some varieties, is, notwithstanding, always perfectly characteristic.
Sometimes they resemble in appearance the segments of a semicircle more
or less great, sometimes the wings of butterflies, double or single. It
is only exceptionally that their form is so irregular.

Again, when young, they are perfectly colorless and transparent;
sometimes they are of a beautiful violet or blue color (mykianthinin
mykocyanin). Upon this variety of the Limnophysalis hyalina depends the
vomiting of blue matters observed by Dr. John Sullivan, at Havana, in
patients affected with pernicious intermittent fever (algid and comatose
form). In the perfectly mature sporangia, the sporidia have a dark brown
color (mykophaein). From the sporidia, the Italian physicians, Lanzi and
Perrigi, in the course of their attempts at its cultivation, have seen
produced the Monilia penicinata friesii, which is, consequently, the
second generation of the Limnophysalis hyalina, in which alternate
generation takes place, admitting that their observations may be
verified. The sporangia are never spherical, but always flat. When
they are perfectly developed, they are distinctly separated from their
filament of mycelium by a septum--that is to say, by limiting lines
plainly marked. It is not rare, however, to see the individual sporangia
perfectly isolated and disembarrassed of their filament of mycelium
floating in the water. It seems to me very probable that these isolated
sporangia are identical with the hyaline coagula so accurately described
by Frerichs, who has observed them in the blood of patients dying of
intermittent fevers. But if two sporangia are observed with their bases
coherent without intermediary filaments of mycelium, it seems to me
probable that the reproduction has taken place through the union, which
happens in the following manner: Two filaments of mycelium become
juxtaposed; after which the filaments of mycelium disappear in the
sporangia newly formed, which by this same metamorphosis are deprived of
the faculty of reproducing themselves through the filaments of myclium
of which they are deprived. The smallest portion of a filament
of mycelium evidently possesses the faculty of producing the new
individuals.

It is unquestionable that the Limnophysalis hyalina enter into the blood
either by the bronchial mucous membrane, by the surface of the pulmonary
vesicles, or by the mucous membrane of the intestinal canal, most often,
no doubt, by the last, with the ingested water; this introduction is
aided by the force of suction and pressure, which facilitates their
absorption. It develops in the glands of Lieberkuhn, and multiplies
itself; after which the individuals, as soon as they are formed, are
drawn out and carried away in the blood of the circulation.

The Limnophysalis hyalina is, in short, a solid body, of an extreme
levity, and endowed with a most delicate organization. It is not a
miasm, in the common signification of the term; it does not carry with
it any poison; it is not vegetable matter in decomposition, but it
flourishes by preference amid the last.

In regard to other circumstances relative to the presence of this
fungus, there are, above all, two remarkable facts, namely, its property
of adhering to surfaces as perfectly polished as that of a mirror, and
its power of resistance against the reagents, if we except the caustic
alkalies and the concentrated mineral acids. This power of resisting the
ordinary reagents explains in a plausible manner why the fungus is not
destroyed by the digestive process in the stomach, where, however, the
acid reaction of the gastric juice probably arrests its development--is
that of the schistomycetes in general--and keeps it in a state of
temporary inactivity. This property of adhering to smooth surfaces
explains perhaps the power of the Eucalyptus globulus in arresting the
progress of paludal miasm (?). But it is evident that other trees,
shrubs, and plants of resinous or balsamic foliage, as, for example, the
Populus balsamifera, Cannabis sativa, Pinus silvestris, Pinus abies,
Juniperus communis, have equally, with us, the same faculty; they are
favorable also for the drying of the soil, and the more completely, as
their roots are spreading, more extended, and more ramified.

In order to demonstrate the presence of the limnophysalis in the blood
of patients affected with intermittent fever during the febrile stage,
properly speaking, it appeared necessary for me to dilute the blood of
patients with a solution of nitrate of potassa, having at 37.5 deg.C. the
same specific gravity as the serum of the blood. With capillary tubes of
glass, a little dilated toward the middle, of the same shape and size as
those which are used in collecting vaccine lymph, I took up a little
of the solution of nitrate of potassa above indicated. After this I
introduced the point of an ordinary inoculating needle under the skin,
especially in the splenic region, where I ruptured some of the smallest
blood-vessels of the subcutaneous cellular tissue. I collected some
of the blood which flowed out or was forced out by pressure, in the
capillary tubes just described, containing a solution of potassa;
after which I melted the ends with the flame of a candle. With all the
intermittent fever patients whose blood I have collected and diluted
during the febrile stage, properly speaking, I have constantly succeeded
in finding the Limnophysalis hyalina in the blood by microscopic
examination.

It is only necessary for me to mention here that it is of the highest
importance to be able to demonstrate the presence of fungus in the blood
of the circulation and in the urine of patients in whom the diagnosis
is doubtful. The presence of the Limnophysalis hyalina in the urine
indicates that the patient is liable to a relapse, and that his
intermittent fever is not cured, which is important in a prognostic and
therapeutic point of view.

When the question is to prevent the propagation of intermittent fevers,
it is evident that it should be remembered that the Limnophysalis
hyalina enters into the blood by the mucous membrane of the organs of
respiration, of digestion, and the surface of the pulmonary vesicles. We
have also to consider the soil, and the water that is used for drinking.

In regard to the soil, several circumstances are very worthy of
attention. It is desirable, not only to lower as much as possible the
level of the subterranean water (grunawassen) by pipes of deep drainage,
the cleansing, and if there is reason, the enlargement (J. Ory) of
the capacity of the water collectors, besides covering and keeping in
perfect repair the principal ditches in all the secondary valleys to
render the lands wholesome, but also to completely drain the ground,
diverting the rain water and cultivating the land, in the cultivation of
which those trees, shrubs, and plants should be selected which thrive
the most on marshy grounds and on the shores and paludal coasts of the
sea, and which have their roots most speading and most ramified. Some
of the ordinary grasses are also quite appropriate, but crops of the
cereals, which are obtained after a suitable reformation of marshy
lands, yield a much better return. After the soil in the neighborhood of
the dwellings has been drained and cultivated with care, and in a more
systematic manner than at present, the bottoms of the cellars should be
purified as well as the foundations of the walls and of the houses.

The water intended for drinking, which contains the Limnophysalis
hyalina, should be freed from the fungus by a vigorous filtration. But,
as it is known, the filtering beds of the basins in the water conduits
are soon covered with a thick coating of confervae, and the Limnophysalis
hyalina then extends from the deepest portions of the filtering beds
into the filtered water subjacent. It is for this reason that it is
absolutely necessary to renew so often the filtering beds of the water
conduits, and, at all events, before they have become coated with a
thick layer of confervae. The disappearance of intermittent fevers will
testify to the utility of these measures. It is for a similar reason
that wooden barrels are so injurious for equipages. When the wood has
begun to decay by the contact of the impure water, the filaments of
mycelium of the Limnophysalis hyalina penetrate into the decayed wood,
which becomes a fertile soil for the intermittent fever fungi.

The employment for the preparation of mortar of water not filtered, or
of foul, muddy sand which contains the Limnophysalis hyalina, explains
how intermittent fevers may proceed from the walls of houses. This
arises also from the pasting of wall-paper with flour paste prepared
with water which contains an abundance of the fungi of intermittent
fever.

The miasm in the latter case is therefore endoecic, or more exactly
entoichic. With us the propagation of intermittent fever has been
observed in persons occupying rooms scoured with unfiltered water
containing the Limnophysalis hyalina in great quantity.

The following imperial ordinance was published on the 25th of March,
1877, by the chief of admiralty of the German marine. It has for its
object the prevention and eradication of infectious diseases:

"In those places where infectious diseases, according to experience, are
prevalent and unusually severe and frequent, it is necessary to abstain
as much as possible from the employment of water taken from without the
ship for cleansing said vessel, and also for washing out the hold when
the water of the sea or of a river, in the judgment of the commander of
a vessel, confirmed by the statement of the physician, is shown to be
surcharged with organic matter liable to putrefaction. With this end in
view, if you are unable to send elsewhere for suitable water, you must
make use of good and fresh water, but with the greatest economy. In that
event the purification of the hold must be accomplished by mechanical
means or by disinfectants."

"As I have demonstrated by my investigations that in the distillation
of paludal water, and that from the marshy shores of the sea, the
Limnophysalis hyalina, which is impalpable, is carried away and may be
detected again after the distillation, it must be insisted that the
water intended to be used for drinking on shipboard shall be carefully
filtered before and after its distillation."

The Klebs-Tommasi and Dr. Sternberg's report, as summarized in the
Supplement No. 14, National Board of Health Bulletin, Washington, D.C.,
July 18, I would cordially recommend to all students of this subject.

I welcome these observers into the field. Nothing but good can come from
such careful and accurate observations into the cause of disease. For
myself I am ready to say that it may be that the Roman gentlemen have
bit on the cause of the Roman fever, which is of such a pernicious type.
I do not see how I can judge, as I never investigated the Roman fever;
still, while giving them all due credit, and treating them with respect,
in order to put myself right I may say that I have long ago ceased to
regard all the bacilli, micrococci, and bacteria, etc., as ultimate
forms of animal or vegetable life. I look upon them as simply the
embryos of mature forms, which are capable of propagating themselves
in this embryonal state. I have observed these forms in many diseased
conditions; many of them in one disease are nothing but the vinegar
yeast developing, away from the air, in the blood where the full
development of the plant is not apt to be found. In diphtheria I
developed the bacteria to the full form--the Mucor malignans. So in the
study of ague, for the vegetation which seems to me to be connected with
ague, I look to the fully developed sporangias as the true plant.

Again, I think that crucial experiments should be made on man for his
diseases as far as it is possible. Rabbits, on which the experiments
were made, for example, are of a different organization and food than
man, and bear tests differently. While there are so many human beings
subject to ague, it seems to me they should be the subjects on whom the
crucial tests are to be made, as I did in my labors.

As far as I can see, Dr. Sternberg's inquiries tend to disprove the
Roman experiments, and as he does not offer anything positive as a
cause of ague, I can only express the hope that he will continue his
investigations with zeal and earnestness, and that he will produce
something positive and tangible in his labors in so interesting and
important a field.

I would then that all would join hands in settling the cause of this
disease; and while I do not expect that all will agree with me, still, I
shall respect others' opinions, and so long as I keep close to my facts
I shall hope my views, based on my facts, will not be treated with
disrespect.

APPENDIX.

Gemiasma verdans and Gemiasma rubra collected Sept. 10, 1882, on
Washington Heights, near High Bridge. The illustrations show the manner
in which the mature plants discharge their contents.

Plate VIII. A, B, and C represent very large plants of the Gemiasma
verdans. A represents a mature plant. B represents the same plant,
discharging its spores and spermatia through a small opening in the cell
walls. The discharge is quite rapid but not continuous, being spasmodic,
as if caused by intermittent contractions in the cell walls. The
discharge begins suddenly and with considerable force--a sort of
explosion which projects a portion of the contents rapidly and to quite
a little distance. This goes on for a few seconds, and then the cell is
at rest for a few seconds, when the contractions and explosions begin
again and go on as before. Under ordinary conditions it takes a plant
from half an hour to an hour to deliver itself. It is about two-thirds
emptied. C represents the mature plant, entirely emptied of its spore
contents, there remaining inside only a few actively moving spermatia,
which are slowly escaping. The spermatia differ from the spores and
young plants in being smaller, and of possessing the power of moving and
tumbling about rapidly, while the spores of young plants are larger
and quiescent. D, E, F, and G represent mature plants belonging to the
Gemiasma rubra. D represents a ripe plant, filled with spores, embryonic
plants, and spermatia. E represents a ripe plant in the act of
discharging its contents, it being about half emptied. F represents
a ripe plant after its spore and embryonic plant contents are all
discharged, leaving behind only a few actively moving spermatia, which
are slowly escaping. G represents the emptied plant in a quiescent
state.

Figs. A, B, C represent an unusually large variety of the Gemiasma
verdans. This species is usually about the size of the rubra. This
large variety was found on the upper part of New York Island, near High
Bridge, in a natural depression where the water stands most of the
year, except in July, August, and September, when it becomes an area
of drying, cracked mud two hundred feet across. As the mud dries these
plants develop in great profusion, giving an appearance to the surface
as if covered thickly with brick dust.

These depressions and swaily places, holding water part of the year, and
becoming dry during the malarial season, can be easily dried by means
of covered drains, and grassed or sodded over, when they will cease to
grow; this vegetation and ague in such localities will disappear.

The malarial vegetations begin to develop moderately in July, but do not
spring forth abundantly enough to do much damage till about the middle
of August, when they in ague localities spring into existence in vast
multitudes, and continue to develop in great profusion till frost comes.

* * * * *

ANALYSIS OF THE MALARIA PLANT (GEMIASMA RUBRA).

By Prof Paulus F. Reinsch.

Author Algae of France, 1866; Latest Observations on Algology, 1867;
Chemical Investigation of the Connections of the Lias and Jura
Formations, 1859; Chemical Investigation of the Viscum Album, 1860;
Contributions to Algology and Fungology, 1874-75, vol. i.; New
Investigation of the Microscopic Structure of Pit Coal, 1881;
Micrographic Photographs of the Structure and Composition of Pit Coal,
1888.

Dr. Cutter writes me September 28, 1882: "My dear Professor: By this
mail I send you a specimen of the Gemiasma rubra of Salisbury, described
in 1862, as found in bogs, mud holes, and marshes of ague districts, in
the air suspended at night, in the sputa, blood, and urine, and on
the skin of persons suffering with ague. It is regarded as one of the
Palmellaceae. This rubra is found in the more malignant and fatal types
of the disease. I have found it in all the habitats described by Dr.
Salisbury. Both he and myself would like you to examine and hear what
you have to say about it."

The substance of clayish soil contains, besides fragments of shells of
larger diatoms (Suriella synhedra), shells of Navicula minutissima,
Pinnularia viridis. Spores belonging to various cryptogams.

1. Spherical transparent spores with laminated covering and dark
nucleus--0.022 millimeter in diameter.

2. Spherical spores with thick covering of granulated surface.

3. Spherical spores with punctulated surface--0.007 millimeter in
diameter.

4. Very minute, transparent, bluish-greenish colored spores, with thin
covering and finely granulated contents--0.006 millimeter in diameter.

5. Chroococcoid cells with two larger nuclei--0.0031 millimeter in
diameter. Sometimes biciliated minute cells are found; without any doubt
they are zoospores derived from any algoid or fungoid species.

I cannot say whether there exists any genetic connection between these
various sorts of spores. It seems to me that probably numbers 1-4
represent resting states of the hyphomycetes.

No. 5 represents one and two celled states of chroococcus species belong
to Chroococcus minutus.

The crust of the clayish earth is covered with a reddish brown covering
of about half a millimeter in thickness. This covering proves to be
composed, under the microscope, of cellular filaments and various shaped
bodies of various composition. They are made up of cells with densely
and coarsely granulated reddish colored contents--shape, size, and
composition are very variable, as shown in the figures. _The cellular
bodies make up the essential organic part of the clayish substance, and,
without any doubt, if anything of the organic compounds of the substance
is in genetical connection with the disease, these bodies would have
this role_. The structure and coloration of cell contents exhibit the
closest alliance to the characteristics of the division of Chroolepideae
and of this small division of Chlorophyllaceous Algae, nearest to
Gongrosira--a genus whose five to six species are inhabitants of fresh
water, mostly attached to various minute aquatic Algae and mosses. Each
cell of all the plants of this genus produces a large number of mobile
cells--zoospores.

Fig. 9 represents very probably one zoospore developed from these plants
as figured from 10 to 16.

* * * * *

CARBON.

M. Berthelot, in the _Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie_ for March,
states that from peculiar physical relations he is led to suspect that
the true element carbon is unknown, and that diamond and graphite are
substances of a different order. Elementary carbon ought to be gaseous
at the ordinary temperature, and the various kinds of carbon which
occur in nature are in reality polymerized products of the true element
carbon. Spectrum analysis is thought to confirm this view; and it is
supposed the second spectrum seen in a Geissler tube belongs to gaseous
carbon. This spectrum, which has been recognized along with that of
hydrogen in the light of the tails of comets, indicates a carbide,
probably acetylene.

* * * * *

CANNED MEATS.

By P. CARLES.

When tinned iron serves for containing alimentary matters, it is
essential that the tin employed should be free from lead. The latter
metal is rapidly oxidized on the surface and is dissolved in this form
in the neutral acids of vegetables, meat, etc. The most exact method
of demonstrating the presence of lead consists in treating the
alloy--so-called tin--with _aqua regia_ containing relatively little
nitric acid. The whole dissolves; the excess of acid is driven off by
evaporation at a boiling heat, and the residue, diluted with water, is
saturated with hydrogen sulphide. The iron remains in solution, while
the mixed lead and tin sulphides precipitated are allowed to digest for
a long time in an alkaline sulphide. The tin sulphide only dissolves; it
is filtered off and converted into stannic acid, while the lead sulphide
is transformed into sulphate and weighed as such.

* * * * *

NEW BLEACHING PROCESS, WITH REGENERATION OF THE BATHS USED.

By MR. BONNEVILLE.

To a cold solution containing 1 per cent. of bromine, 1 per cent. of
caustic soda at 36 deg. B. is added, then the material, to be bleached is
first wet and then immersed in this bath until completely decolorized.
It is passed into a newly-acidulated bath, rinsed, and dried. After the
bromine bath has been used up, it is regenerated by adding 1 per cent.
of sulphuric acid, which liberates the bromine. To the same bath
caustic soda is added, which regenerates the hypobromite of soda. The
hydrofluosilicic acid can be used, instead of the sulphuric acid, with
greater advantage. A bath used up can also be regenerated by means of
the electric current.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9