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THE INFLUENCE OF ACUTE ALCOHOLISM ON THE NORMAL VITAL RESISTANCE OF RABBITS TO INFECTION
The deductions that may be drawn from the results of these experiments are as follows: That the normal vital resistance of rabbits to infection by streptococcus pyogenes (erysipelatos) is markedly diminished through the influence of alcohol when given daily to the stage of acute intoxication. That a...
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Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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The Rockefeller University Press
1896
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2117925/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19866807 |
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author | Abbott, A. C. |
author_facet | Abbott, A. C. |
author_sort | Abbott, A. C. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The deductions that may be drawn from the results of these experiments are as follows: That the normal vital resistance of rabbits to infection by streptococcus pyogenes (erysipelatos) is markedly diminished through the influence of alcohol when given daily to the stage of acute intoxication. That a similar, though by no means so conspicuous, diminution of resistance to infection and intoxication by the bacillus coli communis also occurs in rabbits subjected to the same influences. And that, while in alcoholized rabbits inoculated in various ways with staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, individual instances of lowered resistance are observed, still it is impossible to say from these experiments that in general a marked difference is noticed between alcoholized and non-alcoholized animals as regards infection by this particular organism. It is interesting to note that the results of inoculation of alcoholized rabbits with the erysipelas coccus correspond in a way with clinical observations on human beings addicted to the excessive use of alcohol when infected by this organism. In the course of the work an effort was made to determine if, through the oxidation of alcohol in the tissues to acids of the corresponding chemical group, the increase of susceptibility could be referred to a diminution in the alkalinity of the blood as a result of the presence of such acids. The number of experiments thus far made on this point is too small to justify dogmatic statements, but from what we have gathered there is but little evidence in support of this view. Throughout these experiments, with few exceptions, it will be seen that the alcoholized animals not only showed the effects of the inoculations earlier than did the non-alcoholized rabbits, but in the case of the streptococcus inoculations the lesions produced (formation of miliary abscesses) were much more pronounced than are those that usually follow inoculation with this organism. With regard to the predisposing influence of the alcohol, one is constrained to believe that it is in most cases the result of structural alterations consequent upon its direct action on the tissues, though in a number of the animals no such alteration could be made out by macroscopic examination. I am inclined, however, to the belief, in the light of the work of Berkley and of Friedenwald, done under the direction of Prof. Welch, in the Pathological Laboratory of the Johns Hopkina University, that a closer study of the tissues of these animals would have revealed in all of them structural changes of such a nature as to indicate disturbances of important vital functions of sufficient gravity to fully account for the loss of normal resistance. The conspicuous influence of the alcohol on the gastric mucous membrane in many of these animals, with the consequent disturbance of nutrition, is undoubtedly the explanation of the marked loss in body weight that was observed in many of the animals employed in these experiments. In this light the susceptibility induced by alcohol to excess is somewhat analogous to that induced by starvation, where we see the resistance of animals to particular forms of infection very markedly diminished. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-2117925 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 1896 |
publisher | The Rockefeller University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-21179252008-04-18 THE INFLUENCE OF ACUTE ALCOHOLISM ON THE NORMAL VITAL RESISTANCE OF RABBITS TO INFECTION Abbott, A. C. J Exp Med Article The deductions that may be drawn from the results of these experiments are as follows: That the normal vital resistance of rabbits to infection by streptococcus pyogenes (erysipelatos) is markedly diminished through the influence of alcohol when given daily to the stage of acute intoxication. That a similar, though by no means so conspicuous, diminution of resistance to infection and intoxication by the bacillus coli communis also occurs in rabbits subjected to the same influences. And that, while in alcoholized rabbits inoculated in various ways with staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, individual instances of lowered resistance are observed, still it is impossible to say from these experiments that in general a marked difference is noticed between alcoholized and non-alcoholized animals as regards infection by this particular organism. It is interesting to note that the results of inoculation of alcoholized rabbits with the erysipelas coccus correspond in a way with clinical observations on human beings addicted to the excessive use of alcohol when infected by this organism. In the course of the work an effort was made to determine if, through the oxidation of alcohol in the tissues to acids of the corresponding chemical group, the increase of susceptibility could be referred to a diminution in the alkalinity of the blood as a result of the presence of such acids. The number of experiments thus far made on this point is too small to justify dogmatic statements, but from what we have gathered there is but little evidence in support of this view. Throughout these experiments, with few exceptions, it will be seen that the alcoholized animals not only showed the effects of the inoculations earlier than did the non-alcoholized rabbits, but in the case of the streptococcus inoculations the lesions produced (formation of miliary abscesses) were much more pronounced than are those that usually follow inoculation with this organism. With regard to the predisposing influence of the alcohol, one is constrained to believe that it is in most cases the result of structural alterations consequent upon its direct action on the tissues, though in a number of the animals no such alteration could be made out by macroscopic examination. I am inclined, however, to the belief, in the light of the work of Berkley and of Friedenwald, done under the direction of Prof. Welch, in the Pathological Laboratory of the Johns Hopkina University, that a closer study of the tissues of these animals would have revealed in all of them structural changes of such a nature as to indicate disturbances of important vital functions of sufficient gravity to fully account for the loss of normal resistance. The conspicuous influence of the alcohol on the gastric mucous membrane in many of these animals, with the consequent disturbance of nutrition, is undoubtedly the explanation of the marked loss in body weight that was observed in many of the animals employed in these experiments. In this light the susceptibility induced by alcohol to excess is somewhat analogous to that induced by starvation, where we see the resistance of animals to particular forms of infection very markedly diminished. The Rockefeller University Press 1896-07-01 /pmc/articles/PMC2117925/ /pubmed/19866807 Text en Copyright © Copyright, 1896, by The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research New York This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.rupress.org/terms). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 4.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Abbott, A. C. THE INFLUENCE OF ACUTE ALCOHOLISM ON THE NORMAL VITAL RESISTANCE OF RABBITS TO INFECTION |
title | THE INFLUENCE OF ACUTE ALCOHOLISM ON THE NORMAL VITAL RESISTANCE OF RABBITS TO INFECTION |
title_full | THE INFLUENCE OF ACUTE ALCOHOLISM ON THE NORMAL VITAL RESISTANCE OF RABBITS TO INFECTION |
title_fullStr | THE INFLUENCE OF ACUTE ALCOHOLISM ON THE NORMAL VITAL RESISTANCE OF RABBITS TO INFECTION |
title_full_unstemmed | THE INFLUENCE OF ACUTE ALCOHOLISM ON THE NORMAL VITAL RESISTANCE OF RABBITS TO INFECTION |
title_short | THE INFLUENCE OF ACUTE ALCOHOLISM ON THE NORMAL VITAL RESISTANCE OF RABBITS TO INFECTION |
title_sort | influence of acute alcoholism on the normal vital resistance of rabbits to infection |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2117925/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19866807 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT abbottac theinfluenceofacutealcoholismonthenormalvitalresistanceofrabbitstoinfection AT abbottac influenceofacutealcoholismonthenormalvitalresistanceofrabbitstoinfection |