LABORATORY WORK WITH ANTHRAX ANIMALS. 283 



terial should first be dried by holding the instruments close 

 to the flame. This precaution should also be observed when 

 sterilizing 1 wires which are covered with gelatin. 



When the examination is completed, the animal is 

 placed in a jar and covered with mercuric chloride or other 

 disinfectant. Eventually, it should be cremated. If this 

 cannot be done, the jar and contents should be placed in a 

 sterilizer and steamed for at least one hour. 



All instruments employed should be returned to the 

 borax solution and boiled for about 5 minutes. The glass 

 pipettes which have been used, are sealed at the lower end, 

 then strongly heated in a flame; after which, they are 

 plunged direct into the water-bath. The tube breaks into 

 fragments, and hence can now be effectively sterilized by 

 boiling.* The nails should be sterilized in the flame and the 

 board should be treated with a strong mercuric chloride 

 solution (1-500). 



Laboratory Work with Anthrax Animals. 



A guinea-pig or a rabbit is inoculated subcutaneously 

 with a small amount of an agar growth of the anthrax 

 bacillus. When the animal dies, in 1^-2 days, a post- 

 mortem examination is at once made. The material thus 

 obtained is used for the following experiments. 



Isolation of the bacillus in pure culture. The bacillus of 

 anthrax which is present in the blood, tissues and organs 

 of the guinea-pig, must be isolated and obtained in pure 

 culture. This can be readily accomplished by the gelatin 

 plate method. For this purpose a small piece of liver, 

 about half the size of a grain of wheat, is cut off with a 

 pair of sterilized scissors. The piece of tissue is placed on 

 the loop of a sterilized platinum wire and transferred to a 

 tube of liquefied gelatin. By rubbing the piece, with the 

 wire, against the walls of the tube the blood can be 



