ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 515 



Vaccine Treatment of Asthma."' — L. Rogers has obtained the most 

 promising results with the use of autogenous vaccines for asthma in 

 Bengal. Cultures were made on glyeerin-agar tubes from freshly 

 obtained sputum, two tubes being inoculated from a single loopful, and 

 about six tubes used in each examination to ensure some of tlie colonies 

 being well separated. On the following day, sub-cultures were made 

 from the fine pneumococcal and streptococcal-like colonies, a number of 

 them being taken up so as to get as many strains as possible in the tubes 

 used for making the vaccine. Occasionally the culture consisted so 

 purely of fine colonies that the vaccine could be prepared from the 

 primary culture, but this was exceptioiKiI. If the sub-culture was a thin 

 one, it was smeared over the surface with a platinum loop and reincu- 

 bated until a uniform thin layer of growth was obtained ; 5 c.cm. of 

 sterile salt solution were added to each tube, which were then heated to 

 from 56° to fiO° C. for one hour ; 5 p.c. carbolic acid was added, and, 

 after mixing well, the fluid was put up in doses of 0*5 and 1 c.cm. The 

 first dose was h c.cm., which usually contained somewhere about 

 50 million organisms. If no febrile, but only a little local, reaction 

 occurred, a dose of 1 c.cm. was given after five days and repeated in a 

 week. Occasionally the dose was increased to lA or 2 c.cm., but as a 

 rule this was unnecessary. Diplococci and occasional streptococci were 

 the principal organisms found. Notes are given with regard to a series 

 of thirteen cases which received great benefit from this treatment. 



(2) Preparing: Objects. 



Demonstrating Presence of a Hsemogregarine in Blood of Cases of 

 Trench-fever.f — L. Dimond has demonstrated the presence of a gregarine 

 in the venous blood and from liver, spleen and lung puncture. Two c.cm. 

 of blood from the median basilic vein are at once placed into 1'<S p.c. 

 solution of sodium citrate. ♦To this is added saponin in order to cause 

 complete haemolysis, and to some extent cytolysis, of the leucocytes. 

 The clear red fluid was then centrifuged for one-half to two hours. 

 Films were then made of the deposit. These apparently were stained 

 in the usual way. Unstained preparations were made by first making a 

 ring of parolein in a slide and then putting a drop of the deposit in 

 the centre of a cover-glass, which was then dropped on the ring. This 

 allows the preparation to be examined on the warm stage. A rapid 

 staining method has been used with excellent effect: 0*228 grm. of 

 eosin azur ground up and dissolved in 50 c.cm. of methyl-alcohol. After 

 standing twelve days the supernatant fluid is centrifuged and used to 

 fix and stain the films. After three minutes' action of the stain, the 

 stain is rapidly washed off in distilled water and then dried quickly. 

 The writer also gives a description of the parasite. 



(5) Mountingr, including- Slides, Preservative Fluids, etc. 



New Mounting Medium. :{:— The medium which C. E. Norton 

 recommends is made from confectioner's glucose. It is a gelatinous 



* Practitioner, June, 1916, 7 pp. 



t Lancet, Sept. 8, 1917, pp. 382-4 (8 figs.). 



j Trans. Amer. Micr. Soc, xxxvi. (1917) pp. 42-4. 



