ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 493 



right hand is now slipped into the glove, the tissue introduced and cut 

 in pieces with the scissors, the fragments dropping into the shallow 

 bowl. These small pieces are tben ground up, salt solution or bouillon 

 added, and the material again macerated. The resulting emulsion is 

 then drawn up by a sterile pipette through the lateral opening, and 

 inoculated into various media, as required. For the crushing of larger 

 tissue musses a special apparatus can be adapted, and various modifica- 

 tions of technique can be made to suit individual circumstances. 



Egg Agar.* — A. Besredka and F. Jupille recommend the employ- 

 ment of " egg agar " as a culture medium for the rapid development of 

 refractory organisms, such as the gonococcus, the bacillus of whooping 

 cough, the pneumococcus, the meningococcus, etc. • 



The technique employed consists in adding 4 c.cm. of egg-broth to 

 ordinary agar, contained in roux bottles. Before use the medium 

 should be placed over night in the incubator, in order to complete the 

 impregnation of the agar by the broth. 



All the organisms mentioned exhibit luxuriant growth at the end of 

 twenty-four hours, on this medium (with the exception of the bacillus 

 of whooping cough, which requires forty-eight hours for satisfactory 

 development). Tubercle bacilli (human and bovine) commence to grow 

 after two days, and by the eighth day the surface of the medium is 

 covered with innumerable granulations. 



Cultivation of Human Tumour Tissue in vitro.f — D. and J. G. 

 Thomson have succeeded in cultivating human tumour tissues in media 

 composed chiefly of fowl-blood plasma. This is contrary to previous 

 conceptions, as it was considered that the tissue of a certain animal 

 could only grow in a medium composed of the blood-plasma of the same 

 species of animal. The authors succeeded in cultivating papillomatous 

 ovarian tissue in a medium composed of fowl-plasma 1 part, Ringer's 

 solution (containing • 5 p.c. of glucose) 1 part, and an extract of the 

 tumour in Ringer's solution 1 part. On the third day of incubation at 

 37 5° C. definite growth appeared, which had increased considerably by 

 the eighth day. The proliferation, like the original growth, consisted 

 entirely of epithelial cells. Similarly, portions of carcinomatous gland 

 grew most successfully in a medium composed of fowl-plasma 1 part, 

 extract of embryonic chick 1 part. In this case the proliferation als;> 

 resembled the original tissue, i.e. epithelial and connective tissue. 



Estimation of Gas produced by Gas-forming Bacteria. J — J. 



Cunningham suggests a method of estimating gas production by bacteria 

 on a quantitative basis, with the employment of only very small quantities 

 of sugar media. This is a matter of some importance when dealing with 

 the higher priced sugars, such as dulcite and sorbite. The apparatus 

 consists of a U-shaped pipette with limbs of unequal length, the long 



* Ann. Inst. Pasteur, xxviii. (1914) pp. 576-8. 



t Prcc. Roy. Soc, Series B, lxxxviii. (1914) pp. 90-1 (1 pi.). 



X Ind. Journ. Med. Research, i. (1914) pp. 735-40 (3 figs.). 



