PSEUD DIPHTHERIA BACILLUS. 247 



be thoroughly but gently rubbed over the inflamed mucous 

 membrane of the fauces and a smear made on the blood- 

 serum. The tongue-depressor is burnt immediately after it 

 has been used, likewise the swab. The platinum box is 

 sealed with the rubber and placed in the incubator for from 

 nine to twelve hours, when the surface of the blood-serum is 

 seen to be studded with a number of small white translucent 

 colonies, from which a slide is prepared. 



As most physicians do not possess an incubator, it will 

 suffice to carry the box containing the culture in the waist- 

 coat pocket or as near the body as possible ; or it can be 

 placed in the axilla and strapped there. This makes an 

 efficient incubator. If the inoculation is made at night, 

 the box can be placed in the pocket of the night-gown. 

 In the morning the culture will have developed sufficiently 

 to be examined. Ohlmacher says that sufficient growth has 

 taken place at the end of five hours to permit of a diagnosis. 

 The growth is not visible, but if a sterile platinum needle is 

 carefully rubbed over the surface of the blood-serum and 

 mixed with a drop of sterile water on a slide, the diphtheria 

 bacilli will be found in the stained specimen. 



A diagnosis can also frequently be made by examining a 

 stained piece of membrane. It is not necessary to tear off a 

 large piece of membrane. The bacteria are in the superficial 

 layer, and a little scraping of membrane will suffice for 

 examination. In an emergency a piece of membrane can be 

 well wrapped in a cloth and the inoculation or examina- 

 tion made as soon as the means are at hand. In large cities 

 diphtheria examinations are made in the municipal laboratory. 

 The inoculated boxes and a special blank properly filled 

 out are sent in by the physician, and a report can be had the 

 next day. 



Pseudodiphtheria Bacillus. 



This organism resembles Bacillus diphtherice so closely in 

 every respect that the question has been raised as to whether 

 this organism is not the diphtheria bacillus in an attenuated 

 form (Figs. 101 and 102). It has been found in the diph- 



