104 



SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



/", 





B. Technique.'" 

 CD Collecting Objects, including- Culture Processes. 



Apparatus for Collecting Samples of Earth for Bacteriological 

 Examination. f — H. W. Wiley describes an apparatus for the collection 

 of samples of earth for examination. It consists of tubes of brass, 

 similar in construction to a cork-borer, one end bevelled, so as to easily 

 enter the soil. Both ends are closed by rubber balls of slightly greater 

 diameter, and the balls are held in position by small rubber caps. The 

 apparatus is sterilised for one hour on two or three successive days. 

 The method of collecting is quite simple. A ditch is dug. some three or 

 four feet deep, and wide enough to hold 

 the operator, and one side is made smooth. 

 Samples are taken by means of separate 

 tubes, usually beginning three inches 

 below the surface, and continuing at stated 

 intervals to the bottom of the ditch. A 

 platinum spatula, sterilised in the flame 



of an alcohol lamp, is used to remove the IJlllIH — b 



surface of earth at the point where the 

 sample is to be taken ; both rubber caps 

 are removed from the tube, and the cut- 

 ting edge is forced into the soil with a 

 turning movement, so as to fill the in- 

 terior with a core of earth. The tube 

 is withdrawn, the rubber caps are re- 

 placed, and the whole apparatus enclosed j|| — q 

 in a covering of sacking for transmission 

 to the laboratory. 



Anaerobic Cultivation.^ — D. Bivas 

 claims that the following procedure for -& 



cultivating anaerobic organisms is new, 

 simple, and effective. He uses a test-tube 

 with a constriction in the middle (fig. 28). 

 This is filled up to a with the medium, 

 which is covered with a layer of oil reach- 

 ing as high as c. The medium used is a 

 mixture of bouillon, agar or gelatin, 

 ammonium sulphide, and sulphindigotate 

 of soda. To make 500 c.cm. of the medium 

 in the least unpleasant way the following 

 procedure is advised : — (1) Bouillon with 



1 p.c. grape-sugar and 1*5 p.c pepton, FlG 2 g. Fig. 29. 



474 c.cm. (2) Sulphindigotate of soda 

 10 p.c. solution in distilled water, heated for 1 hour at 100°, 1 c.cm. 



(3) Sodium sulphide 1 p.c. solution in distilled water, heated for 1 hour 



* This subdivision contains (1) Collecting Objects, including Culture Pro- 

 cesses; (2) Preparing Objects ; (3) Cutting, including Imbedding and Microtomes ; 



(4) Staining and Injecting ; (5) Mounting, including slides, preservative fluids, &c. ; 

 (t,) MiwselianeoiiB. f Journ. Franklin Inst., cliv. (1902) pp. 81-91, 161-9 (1 pi.). 



X Centralbl. Bakt.. 1" Abt. Orig., xxxii. (1902) pp. 831-41 (4 figs.). 



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