1893.] Presents. 189 



means of treating vaccine lymph which should inhibit all "ex- 

 traneous " organisms without injuring its potency for vaccination. 

 To this end I first made trial of the method of fractional heating as 

 suggested by Kitasato for the isolation of the tetanus bacillus. Al- 

 though apparently successful in many instances, the desirability 

 speedily became apparent of some method of readier application and 

 requiring less delicate manipulation. 



This I at length found in the admixture with the lymph of a 

 definite proportion of glycerine prior to storage in the usual way, 



Not only is lymph thus treated efficient as vaccine in the old sense 

 of the word, but as time goes on, instead of losing its effect on 

 inoculation, its potency actually becomes increased. Experiment 

 shows also that in tubes filled with such diluted lymph, opacity does not 

 apparently result. As I have previously stated, the glycerine in- 

 hibits the growth of, and after a longer or shorter interval kills off 

 altogether, those aerobic bacteria which I have termed " extraneous." 

 This effect may be demonstrated by making, from tubes of glycer- 

 inated lymph of equal age, a series of plate cultivations at gradually 

 increasing intervals of time, together with control cultivations from 

 tubes of untreated lymph. These results have recently been entirely 

 corroborated by Sclavo, Chambon and Menard, Straus, and other 

 observers, such corroboration being the more valuable since it would 

 appear that none of these observers were acquainted with the similar 

 results at which I had previously arrived, and which were published* 

 more than a year ago. 



There can thus, I venture to think, be no doubt as to the superi- 

 ority of the suggested method of lymph storage over the perhaps 

 simpler method which up to the present time has been commonly 

 employed in England. In Germany and elsewhere glycerine has been 

 made use of for various reasons, but hitherto without knowledge, as 

 far as I am aware, of the peculiar action exerted by it in the purifi- 

 cation of the lymph. 



The Society adjourned over the Long Vacation to Thursday, 

 November 16. 



Presents, June 15, 1893. 

 Transactions. 



Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University. Circular. Vol. XII. 



No. 105. 4to. Baltimore 1893. The University. 



Berlin: Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft. Berichte. 1892. 



No. 19. 1893. Nos. 18. 8vo. Berlin. The Society. 



Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde. Verhandlungen. Bd. XX. No. 4. 



8vo. Berlin 1893. The Society. 



* ' Transactions of the Epidemiological Society,' 1891-92. 



