A Contribution to the Etiology and Pathology of Rat-bite Fever

Of the two postmortem examinations on rat-bite fever previously reported, the patient of Miura and Toriyama, a woman, aged 32 years, died on the 70th day after the onset of the disease. Anatomically there were no marked changes. Histological examinations were not made. Macroscopically, the following findings are reported: increase of cerebrospinal fluid, hyperemia of the meninges, inflammatory edema of the lungs, cloudy swelling of the liver, etc. The other, Blake's case, was a woman of 67, who died 1 month after the bite of a rat. The anatomical findings were acute ulcerative endocarditis, subacute myocarditis, interstitial hepatitis, glomerular and interstitial nephritis. The suprarenals contained a large amount of perivascular fluid. There were infarcts in the spleen and kidney. In general, the organs were hyperemic; the lung showed hemorrhages and edema, Histologically, Blake found marked degeneration, necrosis, and infiltration in the cardiac muscles, infiltration of polynuclear cells, and increase in the interstices of the liver, also marked polynuclear infiltration of the shrunken kidney.