748 SUMMARY OF GUKRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Microbe of Whooping Cough.* — J. Bordet and 0. Gengou find tliat 

 the best medinm for isolating this organism is a mixture of rabbit's 

 "blood and agar containing a little glycerin extract of potato. The 

 frequent presence of Pfeiffer's influenza bacillus is a serious obstacle to 

 the isolation of the whooping cough organism, since it grows more 

 rapidly and freely, and is often difficult to distinguish microscopically, 

 though in culture and in agglutination reactions they are distinct. The 

 authors immunised a horse against this organism and obtained a highly 

 agglutinative serum. The serum of children suffering from or con- 

 valescing from whooping cough shows very varying reactions, so that 

 the serum diagnosis of this disease is as yet not practical. 



(2) Preparing' Objects. 



Detecting Fatty Degeneration of the Blood.f — S. G. Shattock and 

 L. S. Dudgeon made films on slips and slides. The films were kept 

 moist from first to last. When made they were at once placed, film-side 

 downward, in a specially devised glass vessel containing formalin, so 

 that they were constantly exposed to the action of the vapour. After an 

 exposure of from 15 minutes to 24 hours or more, the slides were trans- 

 ferred to a solution of Scharlach for 24-48 hours. 



The Scharlach solution was made by saturating 75 p.c. alcohol in 

 the cold, and subsequent filtration. 



After removal from the Scharlach the slides or slips were washed for 

 a few seconds in 75 p.c. alcohol, then in distilled water, and then 

 immersed in hgemalum for 3 minutes. This was followed by distilled 

 water, tap-water, Tarrant's medium. By this method the fat was 

 stained red, but certain granules brown. The latter are called 

 Scharlach-granulations, the exact nature of which the authors leave 

 undetermined. 



Eeeg, W. — Die Veranderungen des Volumens und Gewichtes des Gewebes bei der 

 histologiscben Fixation, dam Auswassern, der Hartung und des Paraffinein- 

 bettung. 



[Describes the changes of bulk aud weight of tissues during fixation, 

 dehydration, hardening, and paraffin imbedding.] 



Anat. Anzeig., xxxi. (1907) pp. 252-68. 



M E N c L, E M. — Ueber em neues praktisches Alcoholometer fiir Praparationszwecke. 

 [A pycnometer which is graduated for alcohols of 15-70 p.c] 



Zeitschr. wiss. Mikrosk., xxiii. (1907) pp. 423-4 (1 fig.) 



(3) Cutting:, including: Imbedding and Microtomes. 



Imbedding Small Objects in Paraffin.^ — P. Mayer, after referring 

 to G. Lefevre's method of imbedding small objects,§ states that a metal 

 (brass) mould made in two pieces answers better than the watch-glass 

 with an excavation. The illustration (fig. 129) shows Mayer's apparatus 

 of natural size (25 x 25 x 2 mm.). Paraffin blocks made in this 

 mould have quite sharp edges, and are very suitable for sectioning. 



* Ann. Inst. Pasteur, xxi. (1907) p. 720. 

 t Proc. Roy. Soc, Series B, Ixxix. (1907) pp. 427-40 (1 fig). 

 X Zeitschr. wiss. Mikrosk., xxiv. (1907) pp. 128-32 (5 figs.). 

 § See this Journal, 1903, p. 233. 



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