The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene - Volume s1-23, Issue 6, November 1943

The need for some sort of reference list of the insects of potential medical importance occurring in Panama was brought rather forcibly to the attention of the writer last year. During attempts to prepare a simple account of the more important biting and annoying insects found in Panama for the use of entomologically untrained Army personnel, it became apparent that a summing up of the information gathered by the writer and his predecessors in this rich area had become a real necessity. Medical entomologists are somewhat anomalous creatures at best, being either medical men who have taken up entomology through force of circumstances, or entomologists who have become interested in some group of insects of medical importance. There is no journal entirely devoted to medical entomology, and articles on the subject are published wherever the author thinks he can reach the most interested audience.This makes it necessary for workers in this field to attempt to keep up with both the medical and entomological literature, a task that is all but impossible except to the fortunate few within reach of a really adequate library.

It is well known that several members of the vitamin B complex possess growth promoting properties (7). Riboflavin, pantothenic acid, biotin, nicotinic acid, thiamin, and folic acid excite certain groups of bacteria and yeast to proliferate beyond their ordinary limits. The researches of Sure (8) have contributed considerably in clarifying vitamin B1 potency relative to its growth accelerating factors in the lower animal.

In these leprosy experiments vitamin B1 (thiamin) was employed as a growth stimulating substance. Cultures were prepared directly from tissue emulsion that was rich in the bacillus of Hansen. Organ culture preparations were made from the affected tissues of rabbits which had previously been injected with emulsion (tissue juice) of a leprosy nodule containing the Hansen bacillus in great numbers.

Direct cultivation upon the artificial medium of a chromogenic acid-fast bacillus from the human leprous nodule was obtained. The culture secured directly from the human lesion was identical with the chromogenic culture isolated from the lesions of the rabbit induced with human leprous tissue.

Growth was not observed in the cultured material before the intervention of two and one-half months for the indirect (leprous tissue → animal passage → in vitro cultivation) and two months had elapsed before visible growth was noted for the direct (leprous tissue → in vitro culture) cultivation. This feature is quite constant as regards B. leprae culture.

The author (9) has demonstrated that acid-fast saprophytes (B. phlei and B. smegmatis) can be cultivated readily on an ordinary medium in twenty-four hours as contrasted to the slow growing tendency of the chromogenic acid-fast bacilli isolated and reported herein. Duval and Harris (10) observed that B. leprae is extremely slow to grow even under the most favorable conditions requiring eight to ten weeks to attain maximum growth. Initial growth is apparently dependent upon a vital “activator” or stimulatory agent.

There have been reports in the literature regarding the production of infection in the experimental animal with cultures obtained from human leprosy tissue; however, there has been no mention made of an experimental procedure where animal passage and infection was fulfilled, resulting in the cultivation of a chromogenic acid-fast bacillus. Furthermore, to establish authenticity of this culture a tissue emulsion of a fresh leprosy nodule was cultured directly on the artificial pabulum (vitamin B1). This preparation also yielded an acid-fast chromogenic bacillus. The special medium “vitalized” with thiamin or vitamin B1 was employed in these isolations.

These microbial isolations were identical from the cultural, morphological, and tinctorial points of view to the acid-fast chromogenic leprosy culture of Duval. These premises herein reported are significantly correlated with Duval's (2) in vitro cultivation of the acid-fast chromogenic bacillus from the uncontaminated leprous nodule. This representation gives strong supporting evidence for the authenticity of Duval's leprosy culture regarding its etiological relationship to the disease of human leprosy.

• 1.  The water-insoluble plasmodial residues of P. lophurae appear to contain antigens which stimulate the formation of protective antibodies in the duckling.
• 2.  The antigenicity of this material is increased by the addition of a bacterial toxin.
• 3.  Certain features of the immunology of malaria are presented, and the hypothesis that the useful antigens are insoluble haptens is outlined.

Thirty American albino deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus gambelii) were inoculated intraperitoneally with the D. C. rat strain of Leptospira icterohemorrhagiae and were killed in groups at daily intervals from the 2nd through the 7th day. Jaundice, internal hemorrhage, and leptospirae in the blood were first noted on the 5th day. Jaundice and hemorrhage rapidly increased in degree and were marked by the 7th day. Leptospirae were present in the blood in great numbers by the 6th day, but the number had decreased by the 7th day and one mouse (previously positive) was negative at this time.

The kidney cortex, mainly the inner portion, showed progressive changes in the tubular epithelium, including cytoplasmic swelling, dispersion of granules, nuclear enlargement, indistinctness of brush border and, in late stages, lack of adhesion between cells and focal necrosis. Interstitial cellular infiltration was slight and irregular.

Pathologic alterations of the liver comprised cell enlargement, increase in number of nuclei per cell, swelling and oxyphilia of some Kupffer cells, necrosis of an occasional parenchymal cell, and disruption of liver cords due to loss of cohesion between cells. Erythrophagia was present on and after the 5th day and was progressive. In the spleen erythrophagia frequently was quite prominent. Leptospirae were abundant in the liver, much less numerous in the kidney, and were found in the heart and lungs in very small numbers.

The hepatic damage in believed sufficient to explain the occurrence of jaundice in experimental icterohemorrhagic spirochetosis in deer mice. That blood destruction may be a contributing factor is admitted but certain evidence presented suggests otherwise. Intra-hepatic biliary obstruction was not observed.

A modification of N. N. medium is described which is equally as good for cultivating Tr. cruzi and which has the advantage of using less agar and is autoclaved.

The following official U. S. Marine Corps photographs have been sent the Journal by Captain John H. Breiel, United States Marine Corps Reserve and we take pleasure in publishing them. The photographs vividly illustrate the care that is being taken to prevent malaria infection among our troops serving in endemic regions. They were taken by the Marine Corps Combat Photographers and should prove of interest to all of our readers who have relatives or friends serving in the Southwest Pacific Area.

The third edition of this widely known reference and text definitely lives up to the claim made by the authors that all sections have been brought up to date. The references dated 1943 and 1942 are prominent throughout all the book, but are most evident in the handling of clinical phases. It is impossible to speak of all the additions, but Tables XI and XII, presenting diagnostic criteria and recommended treatment for infection and infestation caused by animal parasites or transmitted by arthropods, are of particular interest. The same general outline used in the previous editions is followed, and it seems to the reviewer that the introductory remarks and general consideration of each main group and sub-group, although changed but little, merit definite mention because of their orientation value. For new readers, it should be noted that the book is limited to the protozoa, helminths and arthropods.These, the human infections and the diseases produced are thoroughly presented in a readable yet complete fashion.

Few text books are better known to medical men in the tropics than Manson's Tropical Diseases, which has been edited for many years now by Manson's son-in-law, Manson-Bahr, and which is now in its eleventh well deserved edition. Although not a large book—it runs to just over one thousand pages—it cannot easily be carried about by the tropical medical officer and there has long been a need for a pocket synopsis. With the passage of the war into the warm lands of the world and the unexpected entry into these warm lands of hundreds of medical men who must cope with problems unknown at home, the demand for a short synopsis has been enormously increased. This little text meets it. It is of a size which will easily slip into a tunic pocket. It contains an enormous mass of information, compressed into the smallest possible space and selected with the greatest care.

This book satisfies a need, evident for some time in contemporary American Veterinary literature. The quality of this volume reflects the progressive trend in veterinary science. It is not a conventional textbook of bacteriology, but a compendium of diseases. Although intended primarily as a teaching text, it surpasses this purpose and should be of value to all who are interested in a wider prospectus of comparative medicine. As is admitted by the author, there is a minimum of bacteriological techniques, and if this constitutes the sole textbook for students, it is inadequate in this respect. While there are occasional omissions, they are not serious. The bibliography is well selected, and the illustrations are very instructive. This book is very commendable for its first edition and provides an excellent pattern for future editions.

This book should be very useful for disease control among experimental animals since the pathogenesis, diagnostic procedures, and biological therapies are very judiciously emphasized.