Abstract
ON March 27 of this year Captain W. S. Fatten. I.M.S., gave a university lecture at the Senate House, Madras, on his investigations into the etiology of kala-azar. His Excellency Lord Car-michael, Chancellor of the LTniversity, presided, and there was a large audience of fellows and graduates. Captain Patton first directed attention to the deadly nature of kala-azar, and pointed out that little at present was known regarding the extent of the disease either in Madras or in the Presidency. He referred to the brilliant discovery of the parasite by Sir Wm. Leishman, R.A.M.C., and of the discovery of the flagellate stage by Major Rogers, I.M.S. It was at this stage of our knowledge of the parasite that, the lecturer said, he began his experimental work in 1905, and a detailed description was then given of how this problem was attacked, and the results which have followed this work during the last seven years. There were two main theories as to how the parasite leaves man's body in order to undergo its extracorporeal flagellate stage. Sir Patrick Manson had suggested that the parasite was discharged from ulcerated surfaces, either cutaneous or intestinal, and that it was then ingested by some foul-feeding fly. Against this hypothesis, however, was the fact that the parasite would not flagellate in any medium containing bacteria. Two years ago the lecturer had fed a large number of bred house-flies (Musca nebula) on fresh splenic juice, and had found that the parasite disappeared from the alimentary tract of the fly in a few hours; it was difficult, then, to understand how the parasite could be transmitted in this way.
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The Etiology of Kala-Azar . Nature 89, 386–388 (1912). https://doi.org/10.1038/089386b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/089386b0