132
The quantities of serum and agglutinable suspensions issued to Labora
-
tories by the Enteric Laboratory, Kasauli, were as follows :—
(a) Military Laboratories:
c . c s .
Agglutinating sera . . .
5,344
Standardized agglutinable suspensions . . .
4,450
Concentrated agglutinable suspensions . . .
1.3,160
( b ) Civil Institutions:
A
A g g l u t i n a t i n g s e r a . . .
210
Standard agglutinable suspensions . . .
37,050
Concentrated agglutinable suspensions . . .
1,800
From the above it will be seen that whereas the majority of the suspensions
supplied to military laboratories are in the concentrated form, those supplied
to the civil institutions are chiefly in the form of standard agglutinable suspen
-
sions. The reason for this is that military laboratories deal with a population
fully protected against the Enteric Group of diseases, and consequently diag
-
nostic agglutination tests are carried out with the O antigen only, using Felix's
technique, whereas civil institutions deal with an almost entirely unprotected
community, in whom the H antigen—antibody reaction, carried out by Dreyer's
technique, is not obscured by previous inoculation, and gives reliable results.
It is greatly appreciated that the civil authorities, both institutions and
private practitioners obtain such large quantities of these diagnostic materials
from our Military Laboratory in Kasauli.
Tissues sectioned and reported on totalled 564 which included a large
number of reports on tumours. In addition a total of 118 sections were made
from the brains of dogs, jackals, cats, horses and bulls suspected of having
suffered from rabies. Negri bodies were demonstrated on 51 occasions.
As stated in last year's report the amount of section work undertaken,
apart from the size of the station obviously depended on the interest taken
by the Officer in charge of the laboratory and many of the above examina
-
tions were undoubtedly carried out for instructional purposes only. The
largest number of examinations of this nature were carried out in Meerut and
Quetta.
The number of autogenous vaccines prepared again slightly decreased
this year but numbered 409. During the year 8 medical officers, 9 assistant
surgeons, and 5 sub-assistant surgeons were trained in laboratory duties and
in addition 13 assistant surgeons and 25 sub-assistant surgeons were trained
in clinical side room work. Training of this nature is essential in order to
h a v e
a reserve of trained personnel for laboratory duties and also to ensure that as
many as possible are competent to undertake the duties relevant to clinic
a l s i d e r o o m .
Many laboratories throughout the year purchased new up to date equip
-
ment and all are now well equipped. Officers in charge are encouraged to
add to their equipment annually, within reason, and as far as funds will permit .
Enlarged Clinical Side Rooms.—
clinical side rooms established
at Jhelum and Wellington have again this year thoroughly justified their
existence. In Jhelum over 4,000 various tests were carried out during the
year. The isolation of dysentery organisms from stools was most satisfactory,
in the case of those with a typical bacillary exudate organisms were isolated
in every case, and in those with an indefinite exudate in 50 per cont. of cases.
One case of enteric group fever occurred in the station during the year and B.
Paratyphosum A was isolated from the stools.