520 H. J. CONN, CHAIRMAN 



These new methods are now published to call them to the 

 attention of the Society for discussion and criticism before the 

 manual is printed. At the next meeting of the Society the com- 

 mittee expects to ask for approval in publishing this manual 

 of methods. 



When asking approval to print this manual, the committee 

 is not to ask that the methods included therein be made official. 

 The committee has consistently taken a stand against official 

 methods for research work and does not wish that these methods 

 be construed as such. For this reason the committee does not 

 want the methods officially adopted by the Society, but merely 

 wants approval for the plan of pubhshing them in a manual of 

 methods recommended for pure culture study. 



The following pages give the new methods that are included 

 in this report. 



SPECIAL STAINS 



Of these the Gram stain has been given particular attention 

 by the committee. In the last edition of the report on methods 

 (1920) the StirUng modification was recommended; but in recent 

 tests it has proved to be less satisfactory^ than certain other anilin 

 oil methods. In the first place it has been found to have no special 

 advantages as to keeping quahty; and in the second place it 

 gives preparations showing a large amount of precipitate; and 

 in the third place a careful search through the hterature has so 

 far failed to show the original place of publication of this tech- 

 nic;' and finally, the methods emploj'^ed by various bacteriolo- 

 gists under this name differ very greatly from one another. 

 At present it seems best to recommend three different proce- 

 dures. The first calls for Ehrlich's anifin gentian violet with 

 the technic given in Buchanan's Veterinary Bacteriology (p. 

 103) and is the anihn oil formula which has given the best results 

 in recent tests. The second method is the anmionium oxalate 



' The committee will be very grateful to any one who can furnish information 

 as to where this Sterling technic was originally published, if it was actually 

 published, and if not, where it was originally described. 



