352 BLOOD CULTURES AND BLOOD PARASITES 



Some prefer a 2% sodium glycocholate in bouillon while others use a 2% solution 

 of ammonium oxalate in bouillon for blood cultures. 



Some prefer to streak plates of lactose litmus agar with material from the bile 

 tubes instead of inoculating the bouillon tubes. Contamination with staphylococci 

 or the presence of staphylococci, streptococci, or plague bacilli in septicagrmc con- 

 ditions show easily accessible colonies. 



Schotmuller adds i to 3 c.c. of blood to liquefied agar at 45 C., and after mixing 

 pours into plates. The standard method formerly was to add the blood to an 

 excess of bouillon (i to 5 c.c. of blood to 100 c.c. or more of bouillon). 



A very useful procedure in the isolation of streptococci, pneu- 

 mococci, plague and anthrax bacilli is to inject i to 2 c.c. of blood 

 into suitable animals. When injecting mice use only about 0.2 c.c. 



By using the bile media, we can take the blood from the ear in typhoid cases, 

 if preferred. Then if chance staphylococcic contamination occurs, such colonies 

 are readily differentiated from typhoid ones by the pink color on lactose litmus 

 agar. For culturing blood in septicaemic conditions, the blood should always be 

 drawn from the vein and cultured either by mixing i to 2 c.c. with melted agar 

 and then pouring plates or by transferring to bouillon in excess (at least ten times 

 as much bouillon as blood) and after eighteen to twenty-four hours' incubation 

 plating out. For streptococcus and pneumococcus blood agar plates are to be pre- 

 ferred, the pneumococcus giving green colonies with only a suggestion of haemolysis 

 while the streptococcus gives an opaque colony with a distinct haemolytic zone 

 surrounding it. 



Typhoid cultures are best obtained in the first week of the disease, 

 after that time the Widal is the test of preference. 



If a paratyphoid serum is not at hand for testing, it may suffice to inoculate a 

 glucose bouillon tube or a Russell lactose glucose litmus slant; gas production 

 indicates paratyphoid. This test should be applied when a very motile organism 

 does not show agglutination with a known typhoid serum. Anthrax and glanders 

 should be considered in blood cultures. 



In Malta fever it must be remembered that colonies do not show themselves 

 for several days. Addition of blood to melted agar is a good procedure. 



Blood for culturing typhoid or the paratyphoids may be taken 

 with a Wright's tube from the ear or finger. Dipping the hand in hot 

 water assists the flow of blood. The supernatant serum after centrifu- 

 galization should be pipetted off with a sterile pipette and reserved 

 for agglutination tests while the clot is dropped into a bile tube. 

 (Clot culture.) 



Rosenberger was the first to insist upon the importance of examination of blood 

 for T. B. Brem considered that many cases of finding of acid-fast bacilli were not 

 of T. B. The Kurashigi-Schnitter method for tubercle bacilli in blood is to take 



