146 INOCULATION OF ANIMALS 



walls thrown to each side. One or more capillary tubes should 

 then be filled with the fluid collected in the flanks, the fluid 

 being allowed to run up the tube and the point sealed off; or a 

 larger quantity, if desired, is taken in a sterile pipette. If 

 peritoneal fluid be not wanted, then an incision may be made 

 from the episternum to the pubes, and the thorax and abdomen 

 opened in the usual way. The organs ought to be removed with 

 another set of instruments, and it is convenient to place them 

 pending examination in deep Petri's capsules (sterile). It is 

 generally advisable to make cultures and film preparations from 

 the heart's blood. To do this, open the pericardium, sear the 

 front of the right ventricle with a cautery, make an incision in 

 the middle of the part seared, and remove some of the blood 

 with a capillary tube for future examination ; or, introducing a 

 platinum eyelet, inoculate tubes and make cover-glass prepara- 

 tions at once. To examine any organ, sear the surface with a 

 cautery, cut into it, and inoculate tubes and make film prepara- 

 tions with a platinum loop. For removing small parts of organs 

 for making inoculations on tubes, a small platinum spud is very 

 useful, as the ordinary wires are apt to become bent. Place 

 pieces of the organs in some preservative fluid for miscroscopic 

 examination. The organs ought not to be touched with the 

 fingers. When the examination is concluded, the body should 

 have corrosive sublimate or carbolic acid solution poured over it, 

 and be forthwith burned. The dissecting trough and all the 

 instruments ought to be boiled for half an hour. The amount 

 of precaution to be taken will, of course, depend on the character 

 of the bacterium under investigation, but as a general rule every 

 care should be used. 



