Page 283 - My FlipBook

TOXIC PROPERTIES OF MIXED HUMAN SALIVA. 255

Moriggia and Marchiafava (1878) demonstrated that an injec-
tion with the saliva of children who had died of lissa proved fatal
to rabbits.
The first authors who referred the poisoning caused by the
injection of mixed saliva to the presence of micro-organisms
were, as I believe, Raynaud and Lannelongue."^ They vacci-
nated rabbits with the saliva of a child afflicted with hydro-
phobia, and saw the rabbits die within forty-eight hours. Injec-
tions with the blood as well as with the buccal mucus of the
dead child had negative results.
At the same time Pasteur ^" reported on experiments which he
had made together with Chamberland and Roux, with the saliva
of the same child. Two rabbits inoculated with it died after
thirty-six hours. The micro-organisms from the blood, cultivated
in bouillon, appeared as rods Ifx in diameter, contracted in the
center, resembling the figure 8, They were surrounded by a
gelatinous capsule. At first Pasteur thought he had discovered
the cause of hydrophobia in this microbe, although Colin at once
expressed the opinion that the disease called forth in rabbits by
the experiments of Raynaud was not hydrophobia, but rather
showed much more similarity to septicemia. The rapid pro-
gress of the disease particularly spoke against the former suppo-
sition. Colin was accordingly the first to obtain an insight into
the true nature of the aftection following the injection of human
saliva.
Yulpian "^ soon after reported that he had produced the same
disease by vaccinating animals with the saliva of healthy persons.
By subcutaneous injections of minute quantities of blood the
disease could be transmitted from one animal to another. In
the blood of these animals Bochefontaine and Arthaud found
microbes which morphologically coincided with Pasteur's.
Sternberg ^^ and Claxton, quite independently ofthe foregoing,
corroborated Yulpian's statements, while Griffin "'^ showed that
pure parotid saliva is altogether harmless. In his opinion, the
local and general phenomena which appeared after an injection
with mixed saliva were caused by soluble or insoluble substances
formed in it by putrefaction.
G. Gaglio and di Mattel ^^ concluded that human saliva as such