210 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 
The universal stage is a double rotating stage graduated through 
360° in quarter-minute arc divisions, the upper segment carrying 
the mechanical stage having’ a movement of 40°, the body assembly 
which can be moved horizontally over the condenser also having an 
angular tilt of 40° plus or minus. Heavily constructed joints and 
screw adjustments maintain rigidity of the microscope which weighs 
200 pounds and stands 24 inches high, the bases of the scope being 
nickel cast-steel plates, accurately surfaced, and equipped with three 
leveling screws and two spirit levels set at angles of 90°. The coarse 
adjustment, a block thread screw with 40 threads to the inch, slides 
in a 114 dovetail which gibs directly onto the pillar post. The weight 
of the quadruple nosepiece and the objective system is taken care of 
by the intermediate adjustment at the top of the body tube. The 
stage, in conjunction with a hydraulic lift, acts as a lever in operating 
the fine adjustment. A 6-gauge screw having 100 threads to the inch 
is worked through a gland into a hollow, glycerine-filled post, the 
glycerine being displaced and replaced at will as the screw is turned 
clockwise or anticlockwise, allowing a 5-to-1 ratio on the lead screw. 
This, accordingly, assures complete absence of drag and inertia. The 
fine adjustment being 700 times more sensitive than that of ordinary 
microscopes, the length of time required to focus the universal ranges 
up to 114 hours which, while on first consideration, may seem a dis- 
advantage, is after all but a slight inconvenience when compared 
with the many years of research and the hundreds of thousands of 
dollars spent and being spent in an effort to isolate and to look upon 
disease-causing organisms in their true form. 
Working together back in 1931 and using one of the smaller Rife 
microscopes having a magnification and resolution of 17,000 diameters, 
Dr. Rife and Dr. Arthur Isaac Kendall, of the department of bac- 
teriology of Northwestern University Medical School, were able to 
observe and demonstrate the presence of the filter-passing forms of 
Bacillus typhosus. An agar slant culture of the Rawlings strain of 
Bacillus typhosus was first prepared by Dr. Kendall and inoculated 
into 6 cc. of “Kendall” K Medium, a medium rich in protein but poor 
in peptone and consisting of 100 mg. of dried hog intestine and 6 ce. 
of tyrode solution (containing neither glucose nor glycerine) which 
mixture is shaken well so as to moisten the dried intestine powder 
and then sterilized in the autoclave, 15 pounds for 15 minutes, altera- 
tions of the medium being frequently necessary depending upon the 
requirements for different organisms. Now, after a period of 18 hours 
in this K Medium, the culture was passed through a Berkefeld “N” 
filter, a drop of the filtrate being added to another 6 cc. of K Medium 
and incubated at 87° C. Forty-eight hours later this same process 
was repeated, the “N” filter again being used, after which it was noted 
