NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
A NATURAL CASE OF CUTANEOUS LEISHMANIASIS IN
A BULLOCK IN ASSAM
BY
P. G. PANDE, M.Sc., M.R.C.V.S.
Veterinary Investigation Officer, United Provinces
(Received for publication on 7 October 1940)
(With Plates VI to IX)
T HE infection of domesticated animals with leishmania parasites has been
recorded several times. In countries where leishmaniasis has been in-
vestigated upon, both visceral and cutaneous forms of the disease have been
observed, either as separate disease entities or in combination, affecting both
man and animals. Among the lower animals the cutaneous form of the
disease has been investigated in some detail in canines [Mills, MacHattie and
Chadwick, 1930], and its occurrence has been reported in cats [MacHattie,
Mills and Chadwick, 1931], in a horse [Bennett, 1935] and in a bear [MacHat-
tie, 1927].
In India our knowledge of leishmania infection of animals is limited to
few cases among dogs [Avari and Mackie, 1924 ; Row, 1925 ; Sinton and
Shortt, 1934] indigenous to the western part of the country where Oriental
sore, locally known as Delhi boil or Lahore boil, occurs as a commonly recog-
nised human infection. The present communication deals with this disease
in a bullock. This is considered to have considerable scientific interest,
firstly, because leishmaniasis has never been described in a bovine host and
secondly, as it relates to the occurrence of the disease in an animal other than
the dog in an important endemic centre of kala-azar.
HISTORY OF THE CASE AND DESCRIPTION OF THE LESIONS
While working as the Veterinary Investigation. Officer for Assam, the
writer in December, 1933, encountered a case of cutaneous leishmaniasis in
a bullock in the village of Naura-Kuwar situated in the Golaghat sub-division
which for the past few years has been known to be an endemic centre of human
kala-azar.
The subject was an aged bullock purchased from a wandering cattle
dealer who had brought his animals by road from another town in Assam
for sale in this sub-division. The owner stated that at the time of purchase
the animal had several nodular lesions on both the hind legs extending from
the hock to the fetlock, and that similar lesions were observed on the feet
and tail of a few others of the batch. No information could be obtained
as to where the rest of them were disposed off. The owner also gave the
information that the nodules were transformed into sores about two months
after the purchase of the animal. The condition as observed at the time of
investigation was stated to have been persisting for the previous nine months
The animal suffered from no systemic disturbance, but it showed as a result
of neglect signs of general emaciation and unthriftiness presumably. It
98
Ind. J. Vet. Sci. & Anim. Husb. Vol. XI, Part II ]
PLATE
VI
FIG. 1. Leishmania bodies occurring free as well as inside a macrophage in the tissue smear ×500
FIG. 2. A compact cellular mass of granulation tissue associated with a number of partially or
completely occluded blood vessels × 450
PLATE VII
[ Ind. J. Vet. Sci. & Anim. Husb., Vol. XI, Part II
FIG. 1. Macrophages loaded with leishmania
bodies disposed in the vicinity of dilated
lymphatics ×500
FIG. 2. An area of degeneration with a few
cellular elements and macrophage con-
taining leishmania bodies × 880
FIG. 3. Ulcerated part and downward growth of
the rete malpighi together with the
transformation of this layer in isolated
masses ×150
FIG. 4. Downward growth and branching of the
rete malpighi and the presence of nest
cells ×46
P. G.
PANDE
99
showed an enlargement of both prescapular lymphatic glands and an infesta-
tion with the ticks, Hyalomma aegyptium.
The village in question was visited twice at an interval of about a year.
On the second visit no fresh cases of the disease were seen, presumably, as the
infected animal was kept in a field at a distance from where other animals
were located, for the period it remained with the owner.
In the affected bullock the following two types of lesions were recog-
nised :—
Circumscribed ulcerative type.—Only two lesions of this type were found.
These were situated on the inner aspect of the fetlocks of the hind legs. About
half an inch around the ulcers the hairs were found to be broken and scanty.
The lesions measured about an inch in diameter. The peripheral parts con-
sisted of heaped-up granulation tissue presenting a smooth, shining and
highly congested appearance. The floors of the ulcers were depressed and
contained a crumbling necrotic mass. Excision of the lesions at the first
visit was followed in about a year by new formation of tissue to the size of
the original growth. The excised surface of the tissue appeared oedematous
and showed downward growth of the rete malpighi.
Diffuse ulcerative lesion.—This kind of lesion was found extending con-
tinuously from the hock to the pastern of the right leg. The lesion had no
sharply defined margin and presented a raw surface covered with an exudate
hardened at places into crusts which could be readily removed. This peculiar
appearance of the lesion may be ascribed to the confluence of several smaller
lesions by rupture and the consequent peripheral extension of the ulcerated
part of the skin in this area.
MICROSCOPICAL DIAGNOSIS
Blood.—An examination of the blood taken from the ear vein revealed
7,500,000 red blood corpuscles and 5,800 leucocytes per cubic millimeter as
estimated by Gower's haemocytometer. Leucopenia was thus present. The
haemoglobin content of the blood was estimated to be 60 per cent of the
normal. On a rough estimate coagulability seemed to be markedly increased.
Differential leucocyte counts on the blood from the ear vein and from the
peripheral part of the lesion showed the characteristic differences noted below.
TABLE I
Differential leucocyte count in blood films from the ear and the peripheral par
of the sore
Leucocytes
Neutrophiles
Eosinophiles
Blood from
ear
(per cent)
28.6
14.8
Blood from
sore periphery
(per cent)
15.4
2.5
C
100
Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in a Bullock in Assam
Leucocytes
Basophiles
Monocytes
Large lymphocytes
Small lymphocytes
Blood from
ear
(per cent)
0.20
4.8
20.5
34.2
Blood from
sore periphery
(per cent)
0.20
25.8
52.6
20.2
The above table shows a marked increase of monocytes over neutrophiles,
in the smears obtained from the periphery of the sore. The total count of
the large and the small lymphocytes in these smears is greater than normal,
and the former variety of lymphocyte is more numerous than the latter.
These haematological findings are similar to those obtained by Cardamatis
[1909] in several cases of Oriental sore in Greece.
The tissue smears.—The sites selected for making tissue smears for micro-
scopical examination were the margin of the crater-like depression of the
nodular growths and the ill-defined borders and the surface of the diffuse
type of the sore. The smears were fixed and stained by Leishman's method.
Numerous leishmania parasites, mostly extra-cellular, were seen although
a fair number of mononuclear leucocytes or endothelial cells contained these
organisms in clusters in their cytoplasm (Plate VI, fig. 1).
The mature forms of the parasite, unlike those of the human Oriental
sore, were either pyriform or spindle-shaped. They measured 4 to 5 microns
in length and 2 to 2.5 microns in breadth. The immature forms, commonly
seen inside the cytoplasm of the mononuclear cells, were rounded or globular
in shape, either with or without a vacuole in the centre. The tropho and
the kineto-nuclei, considered to be characteristic of leishmania bodies, were
situated in the widest part of the mature parasites. Thus they occupied a
central position in the spindle-shaped forms and the basal region of those
with a pyriform appearance. In the majority of the parasites the kineto¬
nuclei were situated tangentially anterior to the tropho-nuclei, but in some
they occupied a position parallel to the longitudinal axis of the parasites
while maintaining the tangential position. In short, the morphological
characters of the parasites did not differ essentially from those of L. donovani
or L. tropica of human origin.
HISTOPATHOLOGY
The nodular growths on the fetlocks were excised and fixed in 5 per cent
formol saline. Sections were stained in various ways, the best results being
obtained with Heidenhain's iron haematoxylin and eosin. The lesions.
Ind. J. Vet. Sci. & Anim. Husb., Vol. XI, Part II ]
PLATE
VIII
FIG. 1. Macrophages in the papillary region of the corium, containing leishmania bodies X 500
FIG. 2. An endothelial cell of the inner lining of a dilated blood vessel containing the
leishmania bodies × 1,000
PLATE IX
[ Ind. J. Vet. Sci. & Anim. Husb., Vol. XI, Part II
FIG. 1. Proliferation of the endothelial lining of a blood vessel. Note one of these cells
containing the leishmania bodies × 1.000
FIG. 2. Two leishmania bodies accurring freely in the lumen of a lymph vessel × 1,000
P. G.
PANDE
103
it is believed that others will be detected in endemic kala-azar centres in
Assam, if and when specially looked for.
The close relationship of canine leishmaniasis to infantile kala-azar in
countries on the Mediterranean littoral had caused workers in this country
to suspect that dogs indigenous to endemic centres of kala-azar might suffer
from the natural infection. For instance, Shortt, while working in Assam
in 1923 during the height of a kala-azar epidemic, examined 44 dogs show-
ing ill-health and emaciation for leishmania infection, but the results were
negative. Unfortunately dogs alone were suspected of being naturally in-
fected, and other domestic animals living in association with man were not
similarly examined. In conclusion, the record of this single case of bovine
leishmaniasis in Assam, taken in conjunction with the natural habits and
bionomics of P. argentipes which is associated with cattle in this province,
indicates that the epizootology of Indian kala-azar requires further investi-
gation as regards the question of natural infection in animals.
SUMMARY
A clinical and histopathological description is given of cutaneous leish
maniasis in a bullock from an endemic kala-azar centre in Assam.
The
organism involved in this case may be Leishmania donovani.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author is grateful to Dr. F. C. Minett, Director, Imperial Veterinary
Research Institute, Mukteswar, for going through this paper and making
useful suggestions and criticism, to Col. R. Knowles of the Calcutta School
of Tropical Medicine and Capt. S. C. A. Datta of the Imperial Veterinary
Research Institute, Mukteswar, for confirming the author's diagnosis of the
case.
REFERENCES
Acton, H. W. (1926). Ann. Rept. Cal. Sch. Trop. Med., 1925.
Avari, K. B. C. R. and Mackie, F. P. (1924). Ind. Med. Gaz. 49, 604.
Balfour, A. (1917). 4th Report of the' Welcome Tropical Research Laboratories, Vol.
A. Med. pp. 191-206.
Bennett, S. C. J. (1935). J. Comp. Path. & Therap. 48, 241.
Brahmachari, U. N. (1922). Ind. Med. Gaz. 57, 125.
Brooke, G. E. (1908). Trop. Med. Hyg. & Parasit.
Cardamatis, J. P. (1909). Bull. Soc. Path. Exot. 2, 257.
Chadwick, C. R. and MacHattie, C. (1927). Trans. Roy. Soc. Trop. Med. & Hyg. 20,
431.
Knowles, R. (1928). An Introduction to Medical Protozoology, pp. 233-243.
Laveran, A. (1917). Les. Leishmaniasis, Paris.
Lloyd, R. B. ; Napier, L. E. and Smith, R. O. A. (1925). Ind. J. Med. Res. 12, 811.
MacHattie, C. and Chadwick, C. R. (1927). Trans. Roy. Soc. Trop. Med. & Hyg. 21. 3.
MacHattie, C. ; Mills, E. H. and Chadwick, C. R. (1931). Trans. Roy. Soc. Trop. Med.
& Hyg. 25, 103.
Manson, P. (1907). Tropical Diseases, 4th ed.
104
Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in a Bullock in Assam
Mills, E. A. ; MacHattie, C. and Chadwick, C. R. (1930). Trans. Roy. Soc. Trop. Med.
& Hyg. 24, 67.
Napier, L. E. and Dasgupta, C. R. (1934). Ind. Med. Gaz. 69, 121.
Row, R. (1912). J. Trop. Med. & Hyg. 15, 327.
—(1913).
J. Trop. Med. & Hyg. 16, 1.
—(1914).
Ind. J. Med. Res. 1, 617.
—
(1925). Ind. Med. Gaz. 9, 317.
Sinton, J. A. (1925). Ind. J. Med. Res. 12, 701.
Sinton, J. A. and Shortt, H. E. (1934). Ind. J. Med. Res. 22, 393.
Smith, R. O. A. and Haldar, K. C. (1935). Ind. Med. Gaz. 70, 544.
Wright, J. H. (1903). J. Med. Res. pp. 472-482.
SMUGGLING OPIUM AND CHARAS IN THE STOMACHS
OF CAMELS
BY
E. S. FARBROTHER, I.V.S.
Director of Veterinary Services, Bombay
(Received for publication on 25 January 1941)
I N the Excise Supplement of the Bombay Police Gazette of 1 August 1940 is
published an interesting extract from the Annual Report for 1939 of the
Central Narcotics Intelligence Bureau, Cairo, Egypt, on smuggling opium and
charas into Egypt in the stomachs of camels.
About 30,000 to 35,000 camels are driven into Egypt annually from the
East for the meat markets of the Nile valley. In October 1939, information
was received at Rafa that certain persons were going to run narcotics through
Sinai concealed in the stomachs of camels which were to be driven through,
ostensibly for the meat markets. This information was at once passed on to
El Arish and Kantara where certain persons driving their camels across Sinai
were arrested.
Some difficulty was experienced in determining which camels were carry-
ing the narcotics owing to the large number of camels arriving at Kantara
from the East at that time. However ' the Sinai Police are an exceptionally
subtle body of men and can almost smell narcotics through a brick wall'
and eventually nine camels were put under suspicion at Kantara and three
others were soon in the lock-up at El Arish. One of the grounds for suspicion
was that the owners refused £E 10 for a miserable camel not worth £E 3.
One of the camels detained at El Arish was slaughtered and in the rumen
were found 27 containers with conical ends each 15 cm. long and 4 cm. in
diameter. This information was conveyed to the Mamour of Kantara with
instructions to slaughter the nine camels detained there while the two remain-
ing camels at El Arish were also slaughtered and found to contain further
narcotics. At Kantara, the nine camels had been released but were soon
rounded up again and every one was found to carry narcotics in similar con-
tainers. From eighteen camels seized 17.770 kilos of hashish and 62.593
kilos of opium, worth about £E 2,200 in Egypt, were recovered.
It is pointed out that ' An interesting feature of this case is the strange
ability of the camel to swallow 25 heavy containers or cylinders 15×4 cm.
and weighing 250 gm. and to be able to travel and work with little or no
inconvenience to himself.'
' The camel is a ruminant and chews the cud ; to prevent these containers
being regurgitated they were weighted inside with a certain quantity of lead ;
they were also made too large to pass from the rumen or first stomach into
the second and other stomachs. The rumen has at the sides a number of
sacks in which the camel carries his water ; it is in these sacks that the cylin-
ders lodged up. According to the veterinary authorities the rumen possesses
105
106
Smuggling Opium and Charas in Camels
little or none of the digestive functions of the other stomachs and foreign
objects such as these containers might lie there for weeks without upsetting
the camels digestion, especially when made of zinc and not tin. They are also
carefully soldered up to prevent any action on the contained drugs from the
heat or acids of the stomach. Presumably a camel so loaded would even-
tually lose condition and die, but in the present case the poor beast has served
his purpose if he has managed to carry the tins for the six or seven days needed
to travel from Khan Younis to West of Kantara.' The containers are forced
down the camel's throat, presumably in the same way as a ' ball' is ad-
ministered to a horse.
Since the number of animals that pass through the quarantine stations
is so large and it will not be possible to rely on information in future, it is
stated that steps are being taken to apply scientific methods for the detection
of the containers and each station will have to be equipped with an X-Ray
or other similar apparatus and a certain proportion of the camels submitted
as a routine measure to ' its searching beam.'
An interesting case of the use of science in the perpetration of crime as
well as in its detection !
AUTHORS ON INDIAN VETERNARY SCIENCE:
THEIR WORKS, AGE, AND ANTIQUITY
BY
A. KRISHNASWAMY, G. M. V. C.
Civil Veterinary Department, Madras
(Received for publication on 10 January 1941)
INTRODUCTION
T HERE is an erroneous notion, generally prevalent among Western
readers and Indians educated on European lines, that the ancient
Hindus were a race devoted only to metaphysics and religion and that they
never took any active, practical and scientific interest in the life of the world
around them. But this is not really the case. In the early days of Indian
history, though metaphysics and religion were indeed India's greatest contri-
bution to world thought, other arts and sciences were not neglected but rather
were developed with great precision and interest.
Generally, so-called modern history begins where the real history of ancient
India ends. The birth of Lord Buddha and the beneficent reign of the great
Asoka mark not only the beginning of modern times but the ending of India's
' Golden Age.'
This country known as Aryavarta or the abode of the Aryans was a store-
house of learning for the whole world, and it may not be an exaggeration to
say that, in every branch of science in ancient India, in the words of Captain
P. Johnston Saint of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum,' even the most
irreverant layman would see the distinct forerunner of all the modern marvels
of today '. Indeed Indian literature written some thousands of years ago has
actually indicated lines for research of a most up-to-date character.
The Hindus were among the first to develop many aspects of astronomy
and eminent persons such as Cassini, Bailly, and Playfair are of the opinion
that the observations and conclusions of Hindu astronomers of some thousands
of years before Christ are of real aid in the development of this science to-day.
In the field of mathematics, some historians are of the opinion that the
credit generally given to Pythagoras is really due to the ancient Indian mathe-
maticians from whom he borrowed his theories. Hindu law based upon the
writings of Manu of some hundreds of years before Christ, Yajna Valkya,
Parasara, Brihaspathi, Sukra and others is still the basis of the law for Hindus
in India. So also in the field of medicine, India held a prominent place in
ancient days and evidence has been produced by Pocock, Dietz and others
to show that the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks owed more than is
generally recognised to ancient India.
In his previous articles on' The veterinary science in India, ancient and
modern, with special reference to tuberculosis ' and' Veterinary surgery and
surgical instruments of ancient India ' (published in the November 1937 and
January 1939 issues respectively of Agriculture and Livestock in India) the
107
112
Authors on Indian Veterinary Science
It is now evident that almost all the authors of works on veterinary science
in ancient India can be classified as having flourished in one or the other of
the following three periods :
(1) The Vedic period when the four Vedas were written. The Atharva
Veda, which contains the treatises on medicine and also some information
on veterinary science, belongs to this period.
(2) The Epic period, during the early part of which the ayurveda or the
science of the knowledge of life came into existence. It is to this period that
Sālihotra, Pālakāpya, Rājaputra, Mrigasarma, etc. the first and original
authors on veterinary science belonged. In the latter part of this period, i.e.
the age of the Mahabharata, Nakula and Sahadeva flourished.
THE PERIOD OF THE PURANAS AND SUTRAS
The several Purānas, wherein copious information on veterinary matters
is available such as the Matsya, Garuda, Agni, Brahmanda and Linga Purānas,
as also the several books on polity wherein also much useful information on
veterinary matters is found, such as Manusamhita, Kautilya's Arthasastra,
Brihaspathi Mata, Parāsarasamhita, and Sukranīthi, all belong to this period.
Space does not permit me to deal with each one of the other writers men
tioned above and to discuss his antiquity ; but from such portions of their
works as exist, it is evident that they were all contemporaries of one or the
other of the several authors who flourished in the above periods.
CONCLUSION
It has been made sufficiently clear in this article that some of the works on
ancient Indian veterinary science which were believed to have been lost, are
actually extant and may be found in one or the other of the libraries which I
visited in the course of my recent tour in connection with the enquiry into indi
genous systems of veterinary medicine financed by the Imperial Council of Agri
cultural Research. Even in the case of the other works which are not so far
available to us, one cannot conclude that they are lost,and in the absence of a
definite search we may hope that they still remain to be unearthed. In the
case of other Indian sciences, there have been many pioneer workers who toiled
hard in their fields of research and their labours have been rewarded by the
publication of numerous ancient works. This has definitely been the case in
the field of ancient Indian archaeology, mathematics, astronomy, astrology,
medicine, religion, law, metaphysics and polity ; while in the field of veterinary
medicine, there have been hitherto neither such poineer workers nor any en
couragement either from the public or the profession. It is only now that there
appears to be a little general awakening and the Imperial Council of Agricul
tural Research has begun to take a definite interest in the subject. It only
remains for me to say that a collection of all the ancient Indian veterinary
literature now available and a systematic search for such works as have so far
not been traced, would be of very great interest and advantage to the
veterinary profession.
REFERENCE
Krishnaswamy, A. (1941). Indian Farming (in the press).