314 A FURTHER CONTRIBUTION TO THE 
of caoutchouc tubing is applied, without tying, to the end of the longer leg, 
for adapting a syringe. The syphon thus constructed is filled with water and 
boiled for half an hour, and while it is still in the hot water, one of the caoutchouc 
junctions of the longer leg is seized with catch forceps (previously heated) to 
prevent the syphon from emptying itself when taken out. The longer leg being 
now raised from the saucepan by aid of another pair of heated forceps, the 
syringe, which has been washed out with carbolic lotion, and the nozzle passed 
through the flame, is applied to the terminal caoutchouc adapter. The shorter 
leg is next raised, and at once slipped through a hole in the middle of a piece 
of carbolized cotton-wool, and then into the flask (whose cotton cap has been 
previously loosened, so as to be ready for removal), and the end of the leg being 
kept a little above the level of the liquid, to avoid mingling of the water in the 
syphon with it, the cotton is tied round the neck of the flask and the syphon. 
Then, as the syphon is intended to be left permanently adapted to the flask 
to serve for future decantings, it is needful to provide against the access of 
organisms to the moisture between the india-rubber junctions of the longer leg 
and the glass tube. For this purpose, the catch forceps being removed, car- 
bolized cotton-wool is wrapped round each junction, and a piece of rag over 
this to enable it to resist wear, and tied securely round the glass tube above 
and below the caoutchouc. The syphon is now emptied of its water by means 
of the syringe, and the shorter leg being pushed down till its extremity is in the 
liquid, the syringe is again brought into operation till the syphon is seen to be 
full of milk. The assistant then compresses one of the caoutchouc junctions 
through its cotton investment, to prevent the milk flowing out when the syringe 
and its adapter are removed. This is done with fingers dipped in the carbolic 
lotion, and the apparatus is completed by slipping upon the glass tube that 
now terminates the syphon a circular piece of thin caoutchouc, about two inches 
in diameter, with a hole in the centre just large enough to admit the tube, 
so that it remains in position without further fixing. This caoutchouc plate 
is to serve as a screen to keep dust out of the glasses while they are being filled. 
To keep it level it is strengthened by a fine wire run through and through near 
its margin, and, to ensure freedom from living organisms, it is steeped for half 
an hour or so in the strong carbolic lotion ; after which, as caoutchouc has the 
property of imbibing carbolic acid into its substance, the screen when dried 
retains a sufficient quantity of it to ensure the destruction of organisms that may 
come in contact with it. The experimental glasses, which as yet:are covered 
with their shades at as short a distance as possible from the syphon, are suc- 
cessively exposed and charged, each being brought close to the syphon before 
the glass cap is raised, and then at once placed with its margin in contact with 
