REPORT OF THE KING INSTITUTE GUINDY
(1) Autogenous vaccines .—These have increased by the equivalent of 30 per
cent, as much as 1,500 doses have been supplied in the half year. Table XI
gives an analysis of the few returns received.
(2) Routine tests.— These are listed in Table XII and do not call for
special comment except that the Weil Felix test was made in 11 cases which is
unusual, for hitherto it has not been required in more than about 1 or 2 cases
a year.
(3) Serum reactions for syphilis.— This sub-section was in charge of Assist
- a n t S u r g e o n B . T i m o t h y . T h e w o r k h a s c o n t i n u e d t o i n c r e a s e — t h e t o t a l t e s t s
done now exceed the rate of 30,000 a year. The present arrangement of
doing the Kahn test on ordinary specimens and only doing the more laborious
and expensive Wassermann test on those sera that are positive to Kahn works
very well. The results in the cases where both tests were done are as
follows :—
Positive Kahn.
Percentages of different Wassermann findings
for each Kahn group.
Negative.
Positive
weak.
Positive
moderate.
Positive
strong.
Total posi
-tives (sum
of last three
figures).
Weak . . .
No.
57
20
13
10
43
634
Moderate . . .
524
42
26
19
13
58
Strong . . .
605
29
40
2 4
7
71
Total . . .
1,763
43
29
18
10
57
From the last column, which is the most important, it will be noticed that as the
strength of the Kahn findings increased the proportion of Wassermann finding
positive also increased. Thus there was a general association of the Kahn and
Wassermann findings, but it is also obvious that there was not a close association of
the findings grade by grade. The proportion of negative Wassermanns given by
all sera positive to Kahn is definitely lower than last year's (42 per cent instead of
51 per cent), so on the whole we have better agreement between the two tests
this year. I may say that in this climate we have great difficulty in getting
guinea-pig serum with sufficient complement, which causes difficulty with sera
giving only a weak positive Wassermann.
(4) Cases of interest— ( a) Guinea-pig test 'for tuberculosis.—In a case who
was suspected to having tuberculosis of the prostate and the remaining kidney
(the other having been removed for tuberculosis some years ago), the urine
proved sterile by culture and by direct examination, but inoculation of the
urine into guinea-pigs was followed by tuberculosis in the latter in five weeks,
thus confirming the delicacy and importance of this animal test.
(b) Idiopathic tetanus.—A certain mission hospital in Vellore reported that
four coolies who worked in their compound got " Idiopathic " tetanus severe
symptoms, no wound and apparently no external portal of entry. All the four
cases died. Mud from their compound was sent to us and found to contain tetanus
spores by the usual method of cultivation in broth and the killing off of vege
- t a t i v e f o r m s b y e x p o s u r e t o 8 0° C f o r h a l f a n h o u r f o l l o w e d b y g e r m i n a t i o n o f
the spores. Tested by Tullocks serological method the tetanus bacilli isolated
belong to his fourth (soil) group.
(D) PUBLIC HEALTH SECTION.
Bacteriological and Chemical.
Charge of work.—Mr. Herbert Hawley, the Public Analyst, continued
to be in charge of this section with Mr. T. N. S. Raghavachari and Mr.
K. V. Sundaram Ayyar in charge of the Bacteriological and Chemical sub-sections.
2. Protected water-supplies.—Table XIII gives the total number of exam
- i n a t i o n s c a r r i e d o u t d u r i n g t h e p e r i o d . A s y n o p s i s o f t h e r e s u l t s o f t h e
examinations during this half year is given in Table XIV. The following call
4