Abstract
On December 18th, 1922, an autopsy (No. 3853) was performed on a patient who had died of kala-azar that day in the Peking Union Medical College Hospital. The spleen was found to be unusually heavily infected with Leishmania donovani, spleen smears showing hundreds of organisms in every field under the 1.9 mm. oil immersion objective. A portion of the spleen was taken, using sterile precautions, ground in Rosenow's tissue crusher, and mixed with 0.85 per cent salt solution to make an emulsion which easily passed through a fine hypodermic needle. The same suspension was used to inject the following series of animals, all of which were injected intraperitoneally except the dogs which were injected intravenously:
2 dogs received 5 cc. and 4.5 cc. respectively; 2 guinea pigs, 0.5 cc.; 2 white rats, 0.5 cc.; 2 black mice, 0.3 cc.; 5 hamsters, 0.3 cc.
The hamster (Cricetulus griseus M-Edw.) is a species of field mouse which we describe more fully in another paper read at this meeting.
The results of these inoculations were as follows:
Dog 1—Blood culture positive on 38th day. Died after 5 months. No autopsy.
Dog 2—Blood culture positive on 42nd day. Autopsy after 41/2 months. Spleen sections showed intracellular L. donovani.
Guinea pigs—Spleen smears negative at autopsy on 95th and 131st days.
White rats—Smears of spleen, liver, and marrow negative at autopsy on 29th and 90th days.
Black mouse 1—Autopsy on 111th day. Smears of spleen and liver positive. Sections of spleen, liver, and marrow show intracellular L. donovani.
Black mouse 2—Autopsy 121st day. Smears of liver and spleen positive.
Hamster 1—Autopsy 45th day. Liver and spleen smears positive.
Hamsters 2, 3, 4, 5—Autopsies on 8th, 116th, and 351st days. Smears of liver and spleen all positive.
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