Pellagra : first progress report of the Thompson-McFadden Pellagra Commission of the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital / by J.F. Siler [and others].

Siler, J. F. (Joseph Franklin), 1875-1960.

Date:: [1913]

Credit: Pellagra : first progress report of the Thompson-McFadden Pellagra Commission of the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital / by J.F. Siler [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$relationship to the disease was considerably weakened by the fact that these bacteria were also agglutinated by the sera of insane patients, not pellagrins, at Peoria and at Kankakee, and by the sera of apparently normal persons at Kankakee, Chicago, and Urbana, Illinois. Two of these bacterial strains, Nos. 14 and 67, appear to be identical in nature. The organism is a short rod about 4.0 \x long by 1.4 /z thick on the average. The size is variable, however, variations in length from 2.4 to 6.2 /x, and in thickness from 1.0 to 1.6 /j, being observed in young vigorous cultures. Gelatin is not liquefied. In litmus milk the organism grows without producing an acid reaction. There is slight coagu- lation after four days and a slow digestion of the casein. No gas is produced in broth containing dextrose, levulose, lactose, saccha- rose, or maltose. Fresh cultures on agar are colorless, but later assume an orange color, and this production of pigment seems to become more pronounced with continued artificial culture. Strains Nos. 14 and 67 agree in all these characters, and strain No. 35 in all except the pigment production. It has remained colorless. Inoculation of animals (guinea-pigs, rabbits, and monkeys) has been followed by loss of weight, but has not resulted in the death of any animal. Further study along these lines has been undertaken by the Thompson-McFadden Pellagra Commission at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School during the summer of 1912. The opportunity was here presented to test this culture against the sera of pellagrins from a different part of the country, South Carolina. These recent cases have been divided into four series: First, 66 pellagrins showing lesions on the skin at the time the blood was taken; second, 43 pellagrins who did not show an eruption at the time but in whom a reliable history of the disease was obtained; third, 22 individuals living in the pellagrous district, Spartanburg County, South Carolina, but free from any sign or definite history of the disease; fourth, 27 individuals in New York, including clinic patients and some physicians who kindly furnished their own blood for this work. The agglutination tests were performed by the macroscopic method, a suspension of the bacteria in salt solution being mixed with an equal volume of a 20 per cent, solution of the serum in a small tube for each test, the final dilution of the serum being one part in ten. It was incubated for an hour and the progress of events recorded at intervals of fifteen minutes. Complete clumping and precipitation of the bacteria to the bottom of the tube was recorded as a complete reaction. Grades of almost complete, marked, slight, and negative were also distinguished. The results are shown graphically in Chart II. Of the 66 sera in the first series, from pellagrins with the skin eruption, 51 gave complete agglutination, 5 almost complete, 3 slight, and 4 negative reactions. The 43 sera of the second series 10$