422 BACTERIA IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



Havana should show it. No such organism is shoivn in 

 any preparation photographed immediately after collection. 

 But in certain specimens, kept under observation in cul- 

 ture-cells, hyphomycetous fungi and spherical bacteria 

 made their appearance after an interval of from one to 

 seven days. The appearance of these organisfns was, 

 however, exceptional, and in several specimens, taken 

 from the same individual at the same time, it occurred 

 that in one or two a certain fungus made its appearance 

 and in others it did not. This fact shows that the 

 method employed cannot be depended upon for the 

 exclusion of atmospheric germs, but does not affect 

 the value of the result in the considerable number 

 of instances in which no development of organisms 

 occurred in culture-cells in which blood, in a moist 

 state, was kept under daily observation for a week or 

 more. 



" The method employed seemed the only one prac- 

 ticable for obtaining blood from a large number of in- 

 dividuals without inflicting unwarrantable pain and 

 disturbance upon the sick. It was as follows : One 

 of the patient's fingers was carefully washed with a 

 wet towel (wet sometimes with alcohol and at others 

 with water) and a puncture was made just back of the 

 matrix of the nail with a small triangular-pointed trocar. 

 As quickly as possible a number of thin glass covers 

 were applied to the drop of blood which flowed, and 

 these were then inverted over shallow cells in clean 

 glass slips, being attached usually by a circle of white 

 zinc cement. In dry preparations, which are most suit- 

 able for photography, the small drop of blood was spread 

 upon the thin glass cover by means of the end of a 

 glass slip. 



" The thin glass covers were taken from a bottle 

 of alcohol and cleaned immediately before using, and 



