CHAPTER XVII. 



Sputum septicaemia — Septicsemia resulting from the presence of micro- 

 coccus tdragcnus in the tissues— Tuberculosis 



Obtain from a tuberculous patient a sample of fresh 

 sputum — that of the morning is preferable. Spread it 

 out in a thin layer upon a black glass plate and select 

 one of the small, white, cheesy masses or dense mucous 

 clumps that will be seen scattered through it. With a 

 pointed forceps smear it carefully upon two or three 

 thin cover-slips, dry and fix them in the way given for 

 ordinary cover-slip preparations. Stain one in the 

 ordinary way with Loeffler's alkaline methylene-blue 

 solution, the other by the Gram method, the third after 

 the method given for tubercle bacilli in fluids or spu- 

 tum. 



In that stained by Loeffler's method — slip No. 1 — 

 will be seen a great variety of oi^nisms — round cells, 

 ovals, short and long rods, perhaps spiral forms. But 

 not infrequently will be seen diplococci, having more or 

 less of a lancet shape; they will be joined together by 

 their broad ends, the points of the lancet being away 

 from the point of jimcture of the two cells. There may 

 also be seen masses of cocci which are conspicuous for 

 their arrangement into groups of fours, the adjacent 

 surfaces being somewhat flattened. They are not sar- 

 cina, as one can see by the absence of the division in 

 the third direction of space — they divide in only two 

 directions. 



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