A cat in a pathology lab

A remarkable case of “anthroponosis”, published in the Journal of Comparative Pathology, 1, 60-62, 1888, translated from a French publication:

A CASE OF TRANSMISSION OF PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS FROM MAN TO THE CAT

Communicated to the Societé de Médécine Pratique, Decvember 1887.

By Drs FILLEAU and LÉON PETIT

Translated from the Journal de Médécine de Paris, Jan.1888

[………..]

  "We had in our laboratory a cat that evinced a very marked taste for phtisical sputum.  It followed the patients about, and as soon as they expectorated on the ground it greedily devoured the sputum. Gradually this taste became a passion; the cat watched with interest all the manipulations which were made in the laboratory in the microscopic exmination of sputa, knowing well that the refuse from the operation was destined for it.

  Submitted to this regime, the animal soon became emaciated, its coat stared, its eyes were bleared, it had a muco-purulent secretion from the nose, violent sneezing, and cough sometimes followed by vomition. It crawled with difficulty; in short, it presented all the symptoms of a very advanced stage of some chronic, grave disease.

  I need hardly say that we followed day by day the progress of this malady, and the more so because in the bacillary examination of the nasal discharge, which in reality came from the bronchi,  we had on several occasions proved the presence of Koch’s bacillus. We waited then, not without impatience, the natural termination of this pulmonary tuberculosis, in the expectation of an interesting autopsy.

  After about two months and a half we were much surprised to see the morbid symptoms rapidly abate. The violent cough became less frequent, the purulent discharge quickly disappeared, the general state improved considerably, the animal’s spirit returned, and it seemd on a fair way to recovery. It continued, nevertheless, to consume sputum with the same avidity. I confess that our first conviction at this time was considerably shaken.

  But the cat gradually gave evidence of pregnancy, and at the normal period gave birth to seven well-developed kittens. It suckled one of these for five months, and it did not present any symptom of cachexia; but a slight, dry, hacking cough nevertheless persisted. Six months after the act of parturition, on account of its contact with a mad dog, the cat was killed as a sanitary measure."

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Next followed the autopsy of the cat, confirming that it had contracted a real tuberculosis.

This publication shows some light on the state of good laboratory practice, of the role of companion animals in society and of sanitation in pathology laboratories in the last decades of the 19^th century.