The enigma of Pacini’s discovery No Access

Abstract

During the 1854 cholera outbreak in Florence, Italy, Filippo Pacini documented that the cause of the infection was a bacterium. This conclusion was also independently reached by John Snow during the 1854 cholera outbreak in London. By using an epidemiological method, Snow found that the infection spread through a polluted water network. Snow identified a water pump as the source of the disease. After removing the infected handle of this pump, the cases of cholera rapidly began to decrease. A microscopic examination of the water showed organic impurities but no bacteria. This discovery was ignored during Snow’s lifetime. In contrast, through microscopy during the autopsies of cholera victims, Pacini observed that the disruption of their intestinal mucosa was closely associated with millions of the bacteria that he called . Via histological techniques, Pacini detected that intestinal mucosa reabsorption dysfunction was the cause of debilitating diarrhoea, vomiting, severe dehydration and death. Nevertheless, his discovery of was ignored during Pacini’s lifetime. A survey of Pacini’s autographic manuscripts suggests that Pacini and Snow may have shared mutual knowledge within their respective seminal papers. This survey also facilitates, for the first time, the creation of maps that illustrate the worldwide distribution of Pacini’s cholera papers from 1854 to 1881. The consistent neglect of Pacini’s discovery remains a true enigma.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001450
2021-11-05
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. World Health Organization Health topics/Cholera; 2021 https://www.who.int/health-topics/cholera#tab=tab_1 accessed 18 September 2021
  2. Global Task Force on Cholera Control Global roadmap to 2030; 2021 https://www.gtfcc.org/ accessed 9 June 2021
  3. Piret J, Boivin G. Pandemics throughout history. Front Microbiol 2021; 11:631736 [View Article] [PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Chowdhury FR, Nur Z, Hassan N, von Seidlein L, Dunachie S. Pandemics, pathogenicity and changing molecular epidemiology of cholera in the era of global warming. Ann Clin Microbiol Antimicrob 2017; 16:10 [View Article] [PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Devault AM, Golding GB, Waglechner N, Enk JM, Kuch M. Second-pandemic strain of Vibrio cholerae from the Philadelphia cholera outbreak of 1849. N Engl J Med 2014; 370:334–340 [View Article] [PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Halliday S. Death and miasma in Victorian London: an obstinate belief. BMJ 2001; 323:1469–1471 [View Article] [PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Byrne JP. Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues Westport, Connecticut, London: Greenwood Press; 2008
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Betti P. Sul colera asiatico che contristò la Toscana nelli anni 1835-36-37-49: considerazioni mediche Firenze: Tipografia delle Murate; 1858
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Pogliano C. Eye, mind, hand: Filippo Pacini’s microscopy. Nuncius 2013; 28:313–344 [View Article]
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Bianchi A. Relazione e catalogo dei manoscritti di Filippo Pacini esistenti nella R. Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze Roma: Presso i Principali Librai; 1889
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Henle J, Kölliker RAV. Über die Pacinischen körperchen an den nerven des menschen und der säugethiere Zürich: Verlag von Meyer & Zeller; 1844
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Pacini F. Neue mikroskopische untersuchungen über die feinere textur der retina beim menschen, bei den wirbelthieren, cephalopoden und insekten nebst vorangeschickten betrachtungen über die kugeligen formelemente des nervensystems: eine abhandlung freiburg in Baden: Fr. Xav. Wangler; 1847
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Museo Galileo in Florence, Virtual Museum Compound microscope. Room xiv, Inventario 2660; 2021 https://catalogue.museogalileo.it/object/CompoundMicroscope_n19.html?_ga=2.27802940.1010892302.1614441005-1115689510.1614107653 accessed 12 March 2021
  14. Landini G. Santa Maria Nuova Through the Centuries. Medicine, Surgery, Health Care, Art and Culture in the Hospital of the Florentines Firenze: Edizioni Polistampa; 2019
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Pacini F. Osservazioni microscopiche e deduzioni patologiche sul cholera asiatico. Gaz Med Ital Toscana 1854; 4:397–419
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Académie des Sciences Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des Sciences Paris, France: Gauthier-Villars; 1855 p 30
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Catalogo dei Carteggi Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze, Carte Pacini, Filza 12, Vol XXI, Ins. VI, Fascicolo 1, c. 417r Firenze: Catalogo dei Carteggi; 1889
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Underwood EA. Rudolf Virchow. Encyclopedia Britannica; 1999 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rudolf-Virchow
  19. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Friedrich Gustav Jacob Henle. Encyclopedia Britannica; 1999 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Friedrich-Gustav-Jacob-Henle
  20. Locher WG. Max von Pettenkofer (1818-1901) as a pioneer of modern hygiene and preventive medicine. Environ Health Prev Med 2007; 12:238–245 [View Article] [PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Catalogo dei Carteggi Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze, Carte Pacini, Filza 12, Vol. XXI, Ins. VI, Fascicolo 1, c. 416 Firenze: Catalogo dei Carteggi; 1889
    [Google Scholar]
  22. The Editors of Encyclopaedia John Goodsir. Encyclopedia Britannica; 1998 https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Goodsir accessed 18 September 2021
  23. Tapia Granados JA. William Farr. Encyclopedia Britannica; 2016 https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Farr accessed 18 September 2021
  24. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Richard Owen. Encyclopedia Britannica; 1998 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Owen accessed 1 Septembe 202
  25. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Sir John Simon. Encyclopedia Britannica; 1998 https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Simon accessed 19 July 2021
  26. Vinten-Johansen P, Brody H, Paneth N, Rachman S, Zuck D et al. Cholera, Chloroform, and the Science of Medicine: a Life of John Snow Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; 2003
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Pacini F. Microscopic observations and pathological deductions on Asiatic cholera. Br Foreign Med Chir Rev 1855; 16:144–145
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Biblioteque de l’Universitè de Gand Observations microspiques et dèductions pathologiques sur le cholèra asiatique traduit de l’italien par le médecin de bataillon Raikem. Archives belges de mèdicine militaire Bruxelles: Biblioteque de l’Universitè de Gand; 1855
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Académie des Sciences Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des Sciences Paris, France: Gauthier-Villars; 1855 p 647
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Snow J. On the mode of communication of cholera London: John Churchill; 1855
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Snow J. Modo di comunicazione del colera. Gaz Med Ital Toscana 1855; 1:265–259
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Snow J. Ueber die verbreitungsweise der cholera / von John Snow. Aus dem Engl Quedlinburg: Huch: übertragen von A. F. W. Assmann; 1856
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Frerichs R. John Sjohn snow. Encyclopedia Britannica; 2009 https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Snow-British-physician accessed 1 Septembe 202
  34. Hempel S. John Snow. Lancet 2013; 381:1269–1270 [View Article] [PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Osborne JB. The Lancaster county cholera epidemic of 1854 and the challenge to the miasma theory of disease. Pa Mag Hist Biogr 2009; 133:5–28
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Archive and Research Companion Cholera and public health; 2021 http://johnsnow.matrix.msu.edu/health.php accessed 12 March 2021
  37. Catalogo dei Carteggi Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze, Carte Pacini, Filza 6, Vol. IX, Ins. VIII, Fascicolo 2, c. 346 (Germi Colerici, Snow) Firenze: Catalogo dei Carteggi; 1889
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Tognotti E. II mostro asiatico. Storia del colera in Italia Bari: Laterza; 2000
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Pacini F. Du choléra asiatique au point de vue de sa cause spécifique, de ses conditions pathologiques et de ses indications thérapeutiques Bruxelles: Librairie Médicale de H. Manceaux; 1865
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Pacini F. A Treatise on the specific cause of cholera, its pathology and cure. Br Foreign Med Chir Rev 1866; 38:167–168
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Farr W. Report on the cholera epidemic of 1866 in England: supplement to the twenty- ninth annual report of the registrar-general of births, deaths, and marriages in England by Great Britain London: G. E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode; 1868
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Pacini F. Du processus morbide du choléra asiatique, de sa période de mort apparente et de la loi mathématique qui le régit, mémoire du Dr Philippe Pacini Marseille: Barlatier-Feissat; 1881
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Howard-Jones N. Cholera therapy in the Nineteenth century. J Hist Med Allied Sci 1972; 27:373–395 [View Article] [PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Pacini F. Della Natura del Colera Asiatico: sua Teoria Matematica e sua Comparazione col Colera Europeo e con Altri Profluvi Intestinali. In Memoria del Dott. Filippo Pacini Firenze: Tipografia Uccelli e Zolfanelli; 1866
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Catalogo dei Carteggi Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze, Carte Pacini, Filza 12, Vol. XXI, Ins. VI, Fascicoli 1-7, cc. from 409 to 494 Firenze: Catalogo dei Carteggi;
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Ackerknecht EH. Anticontagionism between 1821 and 1867. Bull Hist Med 1948; 22:562–593 [PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Howard-Jones N. The scientific background of the international sanitary conferences, 1851-1938. 6. WHO Chron 1974; 28:495–508 [PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Smallman-Raynor MR, Cliff AD. War Epidemics an Historical Geography of Infectious Diseases in Military Conflict and Civil Strife, 1850–200 Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; 2004
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Koch R. Berichte über die tätigkeit der zur erforschung Der cholera im jahre 1883 Nach ägypten und indien entsandten kommission. Robert Koch-Institut 1883
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Howard-Jones N. Robert Koch and the cholera vibrio: a centenary. Br Med J 1984; 288:379–381 [View Article] [PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Stevenson LG. Robert Koch. Encyclopedia Britannica 2021
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Inglis TJJ. Principia aetiologica: taking causality beyon postulates. J Med Microbiol 2007; 56:1419–1422 [View Article] [PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Virchow R. La pathologie cellulaire basée sur l’étude physiologique et pathologique des tissus traduite de l’allemand par Paul Picard Paris: J.-B. Baillière; 1861
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Nedswetzky E. Zur mikrographie der cholera. Dorpat druck von Heinr Laakmann. 1874
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Hirsch A. Handbuch der historisch-geographischen pathologie Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke; 1881
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Obituary. The Lancet 1883; 122:128 [View Article]
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Hugh R. The proposed conservation of the generic name Vibrio Pacini 1854 and designation of the neotype strain of Vibrio cholerae Pacini 1854. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 1964; 14:87–101 [View Article]
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001450
Loading
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001450
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Most cited Most Cited RSS feed