820 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



simplified apparatus there is only one needle-holder, placed to the left of 

 the Microscope. The plate on which the Microscope formerly stood is 

 now omitted, and the instrument adjusted by hand. 



A. \V. Nieuwenhuis* describes an apparatus for the cultivation of 

 rnicro-organisms from one cell. The description of the apparatus and 

 the procedure is lengthy, and refers to a stand placed by the side of the 

 Microscope. To the top of the stand is attached a needle specially con- 

 structed for the purpose of fishing out the desired cell from a culture 

 placed on the stage of the Microscope. 



Cultivation of Spirochaeta pallida.j — H. Noguchi inoculated his 

 media not directly from human lesions, but from the artificially in- 

 fected testicular tissue of the rabbit. The only medium which proved 

 suitable was serum-water, to which a piece of sterile rabbit-tissue was 

 added, preferably kidney or testicle. The serum-water in test-tubes is 

 rendered suitable for anaerobic cultivation by a layer of paraffin oil 

 poured on its surface. After the first cultivation strict anaerobiosis is not 

 essential, and the organism can be subcultured to solid media. The first 

 cultures are usually contaminated by bacteria, but these are separated by 

 means of two procedures. In the first the spirochetes are grown through 

 filters which retard the passage of other organisms, while the second method 

 depends on the fact that in stab-cultures the spirochastes grow away from 

 the line of puncture into the surrounding medium, while other organisms 

 fail to do so. The spirochastes cultivated by this method, when inocu- 

 lated into the rabbit's testicle, produce characteristic histological changes, 

 and are found growing freely in the infected tissue. 



New Method for making Blood-agar for Cultivating Bacillus 

 influenzae.! — W. Thalheimer recommends the following modification of 

 Pfeiffer's method. Its chief advantage over that of Pfeiffer is that the 

 hiking agent is one which does not interfere with bacterial growth and 

 does not have to be removed. Freshly-drawn beef-blood obtained 

 from an abattoir was collected in a wide-mouthed jar, and defibrinated 

 by shaking with a number of medium-sized marbles. This was laked by 

 adding an equal part of distilled water, and rendered free from bacteria 

 by passing through a sterile Reichel filter. This yielded a clear red fluid, 

 and 20-30 c.cm. of this were added to a litre of melted agar at 45° C. 

 and poured into sterile tubes. The medium thus obtained was perfectly 

 clear, bright-red, and of the same density of colour as ordinary blood- 

 agar. On this medium Bacillus influenzae, Streptococcus mucosus, and 

 Gonococcus grew luxuriantly. 



(2) Preparing 1 Objects. 



Celloidin Decalcification Method. § — C. F. Bodecker describes a 

 simplified procedure for decalcification. It consists in mixing 10 c.cm. 

 nitric acid (sp. gr. 1 ■ 15) with 30 c.cm. of a methyl-alcohol solution of 

 celloidin. The fluid must be well stirred with a glass rod ; the thick 



* Konink. Akad. Wetenschap. te Amsterdam, xiii. (1911) pp. 566-76 (2 pis.). 

 t Journ. Amer. Med. Assoc, July 8, 1911, through Lancet (1911) ii. p. 536. 

 % Johns Hopkins Hosp. Bull., xxii. (1911) pp. 293-6. 

 § Zeitschr. -wiss. Mikrosk., xxviii. (1911) pp. 158-60 (1 pi.). 



