THE PREPARATION OF CULTURE MEDIA FROM 

 WHOLE BLOOD 



RAYMOND A. KELSER 



From Pathological Laboratory, Bureau of Animal Industry, United States 

 Department of Agriculture 



Received for publication, June 4, 1916 



Several European workers (Szasz, 1915 a, 1915 b; Schmitz, 

 1916; Lichtenstein, 1916), have called attention to the fact that 

 it is possible to prepare from whole blood, a very satisfactory 

 medium for the propagation of bacteria, which while possessing 

 in some respects, advantages over media prepared from meat 

 infusions, can be produced at a cost very much less. It was 

 found that organisms which grew only sparsely or not at all on 

 the ordinary culture media, would in most instances grow luxuri- 

 antly on the medium prepared from blood. 



Comprehending the economic importance of such a method, 

 and the advantage of being able to obtain a medium favoring 

 the growth of obstinate organisms, I have prepared and tested 

 several lots of this product with very pleasing results. The 

 method employed is as follows: 



Fresh beef blood is obtained in a clean container (a covered 

 enamel bucket is a good receptacle) and allowed to clot. After 

 allowing it to remain in the refrigerator several hours to give 

 the serum a chance to separate, the clot is removed and finely 

 ground in a meat chopping machine. This ground material is 

 then replaced in the serum and the whole weighed. Two vol- 

 umes of distilled water are then added and the mixture placed 

 in an enamel pot and slowly brought to a boil, stirring con- 

 tinually to prevent burning. After boiling gently for five 

 minutes the fluid portion is filtered off through cheesecloth and 

 the residue put through a fruit press to extract as much more 

 fluid as possible, using a towel or other heavy material to line 



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