and Laboratory Methods. 1945 



CURRENT BACTERIOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 



H. W. CONN, Wesleyan University. 



Separates of Papers and Books on Bacteriology should be Sent for Review to H. W. Conn, 

 Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. 



Irons, Ernest B. Neutral Red in the Examina- ^ -.ono r> ..uu r j ^l ^ n i- 



tionof Water. Abstract of paper read at I" ^^''^ Bothberger found that B. coll 

 3rd Ann. Meet, of Soc. Am. Bact. communis will reduce neutral red in a 



culture medium, changing the color from red to a canary yellow, with an accom- 

 panying green fluorescence. 



Schlefitler tested a number of races of B. coli and found that all gave the 

 neutral red reaction. In 1901 Savage employed neutral red for the detection of 

 B. coli communis in water. He concluded that a positive reaction, obtained 

 with neutral red, while not diagnostic of B. coli, yet, in the vast majority of 

 cases, points to the presence of that organism, and that in the case of the fifty 

 waters examined, the margin of error in assuming that B. coli was present where 

 a positive neutral red reaction was obtained, was less than five per cent. 



The object of the present experiments was to determine further the value of 

 neutral red in the routine examination of water. Following the suggestion of 

 Savage, ordinary bouillon was used, to which was added 1 per cent, of dextrose, 

 and 1 per cent, of a 1 per cent, aqueous solution of neutral red. All cultures 

 were kept at 37 °C. 



Determinations were made by the dextrose fermentation tube and neutral red 

 methods in exact parallel. Samples of forty-five waters were employed with a 

 number of dilutions of each, such that in the case of each water, B. coli was 

 almost always found in the lowest, and rarely in the highest dilution. In this 

 series 285 determinations were made by each method, with 35 per cent, positive 

 results for the fermentation tubes and 47 per cent, positive with neutral red. 



H. w. c. 



Cambier, R. A Contribution Concerning a The new method of investigation of the 

 Method of Investigation for the Typhoid typhoid bacillus, presented to the 

 Bacillus. An account given at the sessions ■' 



of the Academy of Sciences, June ic, and Academy of Sciences by Dr. Roux, as- 

 December 23, 1901. sistant director of the Pasteur Insti- 



tute at Paris, is extremely simple. It is based upon the ease and rapidity with 

 which this very mobile microbe passes through a porous wall. 



Following is the technique employed in the investigation of the bacillus of 

 Eberth, and in its separation from the colon bacillus, according to numerous ex- 

 periments made by Mr. R. Cambier in collaboration with Mr. A. Girauld. A 

 porcelain filter of the porosity of a Chamberland's " F " should be placed in a 

 large glass tube, closed at one end, and the whole disinfected in a Pasteur oven. 

 The tube should then be filled half full of sterile bouillon, which may be prepared 

 by mixing in the cold and aseptically, 1000 c. c. of a 3 per cent. Defresne pep- 

 tone solution, sterilized at 115°, 120 c. c. of a sterile 1 per cent, soda solution, 

 and 120 c. c. of a saturated sterile solution of sea salt. Inoculate the interior 



