William osler and comparative medicine

During the last thirty years of the nineteenth century, comparative medicine deeply influenced veterinary education in Montreal, New York and Philadelphia. Of the many physicians and veterinarians involved in this movement, Sir William Osler has attracted the most biographical and historical attention. However, his contributions to comparative medicine have been characterized inexactly, partly because of his later prominence as a clinician and partly because little has been written about the history of veterinary education in Quebec.

Osler's teaching and research in comparative medicine as well as his efforts to promote a veterinary profession are described and set alongside the work of other physicians and veterinarians who were his contemporaries. As a result, Osler's contributions to comparative medicine are seen to be many and important but by no means unique. Other Quebec veterinarians, including Duncan McEachran, Orphyr Bruneau, Victor T. Daubigny and J.A. Couture, and such physicians as T. Wesley Mills and J. George Adami made as many, and in some cases greater, contributions to veterinary education in Quebec than did Osler. That they have not received the degree of recognition that Osler has received reveals Osler's ability to represent values and ideals and draws attention to some essential features of late nineteenth-century comparative medicine.

     

An automated micro-method for the enzymatic determination of D-B-hydroxybutyrate in ruminant plasma

1. An enzymatic ‘reaction rate’ micro-method for the rapid routine estimation of D-B-hydroxybutyrate (D-B-HOB) in ruminant plasma, using an I.L. Multistat III centrifugal analyzer, is described.
2. Reaction conditions were optimized to give a linear response for plasma D-B-HOB concentrations between 100 and 2500 μmoles per litre, at 30°C and pH 9.0.
3. For the standardized method the within-run and between-run coefficients of variation for deproteinised ovine plasma were consistently less than 3.5%.
4. There was good agreement between plasma concentrations obtained by the present method and both original U.V. end-point technique (r=0.927b=0.950) and a colorimetric end-point procedure (r=0.937. b=0.879).
5. Utreated ovine and bovine plasma consistently exhibited high ‘blank’ activity and this was directly correlated with plasma lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity in both species (r=0.971; p<0.001 and r=0.949; p<0.001 respectively). The distribution of LDH activity in man was similar to sheep but, contrastingly, non-specific interference was extremely low in human plasma and unrelated to LDH. Horse, chicken and rat had negligible ‘blank” activity and comparatively low LDH levels. In both cattle and sheep non-specific interference was abolished by perchloric acid precipitation. In the sheep subtraction of ‘blank’ activity gave D-H-HOB concentrations for untreated plasma comparable to those in deproteinised samples. However, in the bovine, D-B-HOB levels remained significantly (t=6.44; p<0.001) higher even after ‘blank’ correlation. In contrast to man and other non-ruminants, perchloric acid precipitation is essential in ruminants to avoid false overestimation of plasma D-B-HOB levels.
6. Plasma with EDTA as anticoagulant and serum gave concentrations of D-B-HOB approximately 60% lower, than samples containing heparin or oxalate/fluoride. However, heparin was associated with much higher (up to 50%) non-specific NAD rduction than oxalate/fluoride.
7. High levels of acetoacetate (400–1000 μmoles per litre) reduced the recovery of D-B-HOB from ovine plasma by less than 10%. This effect was negated by the inclusion of hydrazine hydrates in the reaction mixture. Perchlorate ion concentrations above 25 μmoles per litre per test dramatically inhibited the assay in ovine plasma, and therefore precipitation conditions must be carefully controlled.
8. Plasma with oxalate/fluoride as anticoagulant showed the greatest stability in storage; 24 hours at room temperature, one week at +4°C and at least one month at ?20°C.

     

Detection of beet yellows virus in sugarbeet plants by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)

Beet yellows virus can be detected in leaf extracts of infected sugarbeet plants by ELISA. The use of discs was studied and proved to be a valuable and qualitatively reliable method. Leaf material could be stored at 4^o or 22°C for at least six days without affecting the detection of this virus by ELISA. A dramatic decrease in ELISA values was found when leaf extracts were frozen.In an analysis of the distribution of virus over the plant it was found that young leaves present at the moment of infection and those which had still to develop after infection will contain virus. Symptoms produced by systemic virus invasion occur on the oldest leaves containing virus.Samenvatting Het bietevergelingsvirus kan op betrouwbare wijze met de ELISA methode in geïnfecteerde bieteplanten worden aangetoond. Een aanzienlijke vereenvoudiging van de procedure kan worden bereikt met de zogenaamde disc-method, waarbij intacte ponsstukjes in de putjes van de ELISA-plaat worden geïncubeerd. Hierbij komt voldoende virus uit de ponsstukjes voor ELISA vrij. Bladmateriaal kon op verschillende wijzen bewaard worden zonder dat de mogelijkheid om het virus aan te tonen achteruitging. Met bladextracten die ingevroren waren, werden echter slechte resultaten verkregen.In een analyse naar de verdeling van het virus over het loof bleek het virus voor te komen in de geïnoculeerde bladeren, in die bladeren die op het tijdstip van inoculatie minder dan de helft van hun uiteindelijke lengte bereikt hadden en in de bladeren die nog moesten verschijnen. De symptomen ontwikkelden zich op de oudste systemisch geïnfecteerde bladeren.     

Equine hydatidosis: a new record for New Zealand

Cysts found in the liver of a horse which had never been out of New Zealand were used to infect two dogs which were slaughtered 35 days after infection. Large numbers of Echinococcus granulosus were recovered. These cestodes were compared with mature dog-sheep cestodes, using light and scanning electron microscopy and identified as the dog-horse strain of E.granulosus.     

Effects of pretreatment conditions on ammonium and nitrate uptake by Douglas-fir seedlings

Effects of pretreatment solutions containing varying concentrations of calcium, potassium, ammonium and nitrate were evaluated by measuring fluxes of the same ions during a subsequent 4-hour uptake by Douglas-fir seedlings. Maximal rate of ammonium uptake (11 microeq g(-1) root dry weight h(-1)) was about 5 times faster than that of nitrate (2 microeq g(-1) root dry weight h(-1)). Ammonium uptake was most rapid after pretreatment with low potassium levels and was unaffected by ammonium pretreatment. Nitrate uptake was most rapid after pretreatment with high levels of nitrate and low levels of potassium. Calcium uptake was greater when nitrate replaced ammonium as the N source. High calcium pretreatment levels depressed subsequent calcium uptake or resulted in calcium release in both ammonium and nitrate experiments. Potassium efflux occurred with both N sources, but the release was less during nitrate uptake than during ammonium uptake. Efflux of potassium is probably associated with the high potassium status of the seedlings and the exchange between potassium and other cations. High levels of potassium in the pretreatment solutions enhanced potassium efflux and caused a reduction in the subsequent rates of uptake of both ammonium and nitrate. Length of pretreatment and seedling size generally did not affect uptake rates.