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23
condition. As a precautionary measure, all the Government blankets on
board were removed to the Port Sanitary Hospital for disinfection, and a bale
of 25 blankets was sent to Dr. Klein. The inspection of the blankets at the
Port Sanitary Disinfecting Station, and Dr. Klein's report on his examination
of the same, revealed a very serious and dangerous condition of affairs.
One hundred blankets were examined, and 98 of these were found to be
soiled, in many cases with what appeared to be fecal matter, blood, and
urine. In addition, lumps of dirt of various kinds and sizes were adherent to
the blankets. Moreover, from their condition, it was obvious that the
blankets had never been submitted to any process of cleansing or disinfection,
and this surmise was fully confirmed by Dr. Klein's subsequent report.
Dr. Klein's report with reference to blankets is as follows:—
"St. Bartholomew's Hospital,
" May 18th, 1903.
" The Medical Officer of Health.
" Blankets were delivered here on May 13th. Of these blankets fully
"75 per cent. showed some kind of patches of dirt and large and
" small discoloured stains.
" A bacterioscopic analysis was made of some of the dirt, as also of
" some of the stains, with the following result:—
" (a.) Some of the dirt was paint.
" (b.) Some of it was dried farinaceous material, probably arrowroot.
" (c.) Some of it was distinctly fæcal matter, since in culture it
" yielded abundance of bacillus coli and bacillus enteritidis
" sporogenes.
" (d.) Some of the stains looked like old stains of urine. Chemical
" test for chlorides and for ammonia fully confirmed the
" surmise. Bacterioscopic analysis of such stain, with the view
" of discovering the presence of the bacillus typhosus (knowing
" that the urine of typhoid patients in the later stages contains
" this microbe, sometimes in great numbers), yielded highly
" important results, viz., the cultures contained great abundance
" of colonies, which in aspect and constitution corresponded to
" the colonies of bacillus typhosus.
" Agglutination test was made, subjecting an emulsion of some of the
" above suspected colonies to the influence of blood serum of a
" typhoid immunised rabbit. One part of this blood serum
" added to forty parts of the emulsion of the suspected bacilli
" caused striking and complete agglutination in ten to twenty
" minutes.
" I have made all necessary sub-cultures in order to definitely decide
" the nature of the above colonies, but from the strikingly charac''
teristic aspect of the colonies, and from the decided nature of
" the agglutination, I think it extremely probable that we are
" dealing with the real bacillus typhosus.
"E. KLEIN."