ANNUAL REPORT UPON THE WORK OF THE BACTERIO-
LOGICAL SECTION OF THE KING INSTITUTE OF
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE FOR THE YEAR 1906.
1. The work of the bacteriological section has formerly been incorporated in
the annual report of the work of the King Institute for the official year ; so that
the present separate report, which it has been decided to make at the end of the
calendar year, has, in the present instance to some extent, to cover ground already
gone over. But a fuller treatment of the subject-matter is intended and a certain
amount of repetition should not detract from its value.
2. The work of the section may most conveniently be divided into
—
(i) Assistance given to the Medical and Sanitary authorities and others
by the routine examination and report upon specimens sent in.
(ii) Research.
(iii) Educational.
(iv) The report on the working of the experimental sewage installation is
annexed (Appendix I).
(i) ROUTINE WORK.
1. During the year 1,083 specimens have been received and reported upon.
These are of a miscellaneous nature consisting of material sent in by Medical
Officers, Sanitary authorities, plague officials and others. The work is mainly of
use to the individual sender by assisting him in the diagnosis of particular cases,
the presence or absence of tubercle bacilli, typhoid reaction, malignancy and nature
of tumours, in the diagnosis of plague cases or plague in rats, in the detection of
polluted drinking waters, the efficiency of filtration and other matters : but there
are certain features of such work that may be specially noted.
2. Malaria.—The Institute is usually asked to examine single films of blood
for diagnostic purposes, but in a certain number of cases officers have asked for
information regarding the percentage of infections among a number of children
from whom blood films have been taken and forwarded to the Institute. If such
estimation of the endemic index of different localities were more frequently asked
for some very valuable information of permanent value would, in course of time,
accrue, and the Section would be able to publish information regarding the
prevalence of malaria and the nature of the parasites in different parts of the
Presidency.
3. Plague.—A system of forwarding plague specimens has evidently now been
adopted by most of the districts of the Presidency. It is rather to be wondered at
that the want of such an obvious assistance to diagnosis was not earlier felt. To
prevent certain errors in interpretation of reports, the following printed slip is
widely circulated and sent out with reports when thought desirable.
"INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS."
. . . . . .
The plague bacillus cannot as a rule be found in the peripheral blood of
plague patients. The absence of the plague bacillus from such a specimen therefore really means
very little and certainly does not exclude plague.
"As a rule the sending of peripheral blood only is an omission on the part of the Hospital
Assistant or other concerned who, if more energetic could, as a rule, forward more likely material
such as smears from the spleen of fatal cases, smears from buboes, etc.
"2. Sputum as a rule contains countless organisms, some of them closely resembling in.
a ppearance the plague bacillus. Fortunately when plague bacilli are present at all, they are in