Letter of the Day: October 4

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 910

 

October 4, 1895

 

Dr. Irving W. Rand,

Columbia Hospital,

Washington, D.C.

 

Dear Doctor:

 

The portions of liver, kidney and spleen from a case of suppression of urine after Caesarean operation, sent to this laboratory on September 9, 1895, have been subjected to microscopical examination with the following result:

 

Kidney: Chronic parenchymatous nephritis, with extensive cell change and increase of connective tissue.

Liver: Extensive fatty degeneration; the cells at the periphery of the lobules are uniformly degenerated and atrophied., and some of them have disappeared; slight increase of connective tissue.

Spleen: Shows some cellular hyperplasia in the pulp of the organ. All three tissues contain a moderately large bacillus with rounded ends, and of variable length. As cultures were not taken it is impossible to say what this organism is; it may be proteus vulgaris.

 

Very respectfully,

Walter Reed

Surgeon, U.S. Army,

Curator