ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC, 427 



B. Technique.* 

 (1) Collecting: Objects, including' Culture Processes. 



Hsemoculture of Gonococci.f — P. Danila reports a case of gonor- 

 I'lujeal septicaemia in which he succeedeJ in isolating the organism in 

 ciuestion from the blood-stream. Ordinary broth without the addition 

 of serum or ascitic fluid, ascitic agar, and ordinary agar were inoculated 

 with blood from the median vein and incubated immediately at 37° C. 

 After forty-eight hours colonies of the gonococci were observed growing 

 in the clot in the broth culture. The other media remained sterile. 

 The articular fluid from the knee-joint, although rich in leucocytes, did 

 not contain gonococci. The patient did not recover. 



New Method of Anaerobic Culture.| — J. Mcintosh and P. Fildes 

 have constructed an apparatus in which they state anaerobic cultures 

 can be grown with the greatest facility. The culture tubes are enclosed 

 in a receptacle in which is suspended a piece of asbestos or platinum 

 covered with palladium. Hydrogen is then passed into the receptacle 

 by means of a stop-cock. The palladium black causes the hydrogen to 

 combine with oxygen, and the atmosphere becomes quite free from the 

 latter. 



A round receptacle made of tin-plate is employed (175 mm. by 

 125 mm.), to which is adapted a lid with a tap affixed centrally. The 

 contrivance is made impervious to the external air by means of a 

 plasticine luting. The culture tubes are placed in the luted receptacle, 

 the metal cage containing the palladium is then warmed in the Bunsen 

 flame, and the lid firmly adjusted. Hydrogen, under pressure, is then 

 allowed to flow through the tap until the apparatus becomes cold (twenty- 

 five minutes). It is then placed in the incubator. If used for gelatin 

 cultures it is necessary to place a refrigerating mixture in the receptacle 

 at the same time as the cultares. A yet more simple application of this 

 method may be made by employing an Erlenmeyer's flask fixed with a 

 rubber cork through which passes the connexion from the hydrogen tap, 

 the cage containing the platinum-palladium being fixed with a nut to the 

 lower surface of the cork. By tliese methods the authors have succeeded 

 in producing well-developed colonies of Bacillus perfringens and of 

 B. (edematis maligni from material taken direct from w'ar wounds 

 containing these organisms. The advantages claimed are as follows : — 

 1. The method is very simple and rapid, the operation being completed 

 in twenty minutes. 2. The apparatus is always ready for use without 

 previous preparation, and without the employment of any reagent other 

 than hydrogen. 3. All the usual laboratory media can be used without 

 any previous preparation. 4. The strictest anaerobes grow on the 

 surface of the media ; for example, the colonies of the tetanus bacillus 

 on serum agar become visible in twenty-four hours. 



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

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

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

 (6) Miscellaneous. f G.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, Ixxix. (1916) pp. 460-1. 



: G.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, Ixxix. (1916) pp. 293-5. 



2 G 2 



