Abstract
I FIRST noticed bacteria in the blood of a roach (Leuciscus rutilus). This roach, for some hours before it was removed from the water, had been occasionally swimming on its side at the surface—an indication that it was in an exhausted condition. Immediately after the fish was killed, a drop of blood was taken from the heart by a sterilized pipette (with all the necessary precautions) and examined. The blood was found to contain a considerable number of slender motionless bacilli, measuring from 0.003–0.008 micromillimetres in length. On an average, four bacilli were visible in the field at a time, with Zeiss's F objective and No. 1 eye-piece. The peritoneal fluid which was next examined contained so many bacilli that it was impossible to count them; the bacilli were usually lying amongst large granular lymph-cells, and they were longer and more slender than those in the blood. Similar bacilli were found in the lymphatics, spleen, liver, and kidney, and they were abundant in the muscles in contact with the peritoneum, while very few were found in the muscles under the skin of the trunk, and still fewer in the muscles near the tail. The intestine was crowded with similar bacilli to those found in the body-cavity, and, in addition, there were a number of large and small bacteria and micrococci. Bacilli also were found in the walls of the intestine and in the bile-duct. Believing that there was some relation between the diminished vitality of the above roach and the numerous bacilli in the tissues, I examined a considerable number of healthy roach in the same way, and also other freshwater fish, e.g. trout (Salmo levenensis), perch (Perca fluviatilis), carp (Cyprinus auratus), and eels (Anguilla vulgaris). In all the healthy specimens examined, with the exception of the trout, bacilli were found in the body-cavity. Bacilli were also present in the blood of the carp, and on one occasion four bacilli were detected in a drop of blood from what appeared to be a healthy roach. In some the peritoneal fluid contained numerous bacilli, while in others only a few were visible; generally there was a relation between the number in the body-cavity and the number in the intestine, and they were most abundant in fish which had lived for some time in aquaria without food; but in trout which had been fasting for at least ten days, no bacilli could be observed in the peritoneal fluid. The carp which had bacilli in their blood had been living for some months in a small glass aquarium.
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On the Presence of Bacteria in the Lymph, etc., of Living Fish and other Vertebrates 1 . Nature 36, 251–252 (1887). https://doi.org/10.1038/036251a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/036251a0