^4 BACTERIOLOGY : 



of detached bits of tumor, is the long immobile, club-shaped 

 Oppler-Boas bacillus. 



The most important recent advance in the diagnosis of puer- 

 peral sepsis is the employment of bacteriologic methods to as- 

 certain the variety of the infecting organism. The fatal infec- 

 tions with the gas bacillus (bacillus aerogenes capsulatus of 

 Welch) and with the septicemia-producing streptococcus should 

 be carefully separated from the milder infections by the colon 

 bacillus and the staphylococcus and the usually localized 

 gonococcus invasions. A sterile glass tube may be inserted into 

 the uterine cavity, some of the lochia withdrawn into the tube, 

 and the tube ends sealed pending the examination of the contents. 



In general surgery the value of staining the fluids from in- 

 fected foci, even during the operation, in order to determine the 

 necessary operative procedure, has not diminished, although the 

 method is not new. 



Certain bacteria exhibit, under varying conditions, altera- 

 tions in their staining properties. Such bacteria may be more 

 distinctively stained after cultivation upon a particular medium. 

 This is so important with the diphtheria bacillus that the diag- 

 nosis is made by staining after cultivation upon Loffler blood- 

 serum mixture. The rapid growth, at incubator temperature. 

 of the irregularly rounded, elevated, porcelain white colonies 

 tending to rapidly coalesce into a diffuse smeary layer, is also 

 quite characteristic of this organism. Eisner, Kashida and Hiss 

 have devised special media 1 for developing characteristic cultures 



1 Piorkowsky (Ber.klin. Woch., 7,99,) has recently recommended a medium 

 composed of normal urine containing 0.5* peptone and 8 3* gelatin. The medium Is 

 Inoculated from the stools, and incubated 20 hours The typhoid colonies appear aa 

 colorless spots of radiating threads, while the colon cultures are sharply defined, 

 round, yellowish colonies. 



