266 AIDS TO, BACTERIOLOGY 



of the disease. Nankivell also thinks the period of in- 

 cubation to be short not more than four days, probably 

 twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Meningococci having 

 been found in the blood in pure culture when meninges 

 and cord were unaffected, Nankivell strongly recommends 

 blood-culture. 



Researches on the meningococcus till the end of 1915 

 are summarised in a ' Report of the Special Advisory 

 Committee upon Bacteriological Studies of Cerebro-Spinal 

 Fever during the Epidemic of 191.5 ' produced by the 

 Medical Research Committee (National Health Insur- 

 ance) and to be obtained from Wy man's. Fetter Lane, 

 E.G. (6d.). In this report, Professors Andrewes, Bulloch, 

 and Hewlett express scepticism regarding the ' pleomor- 

 phism ' of the meningococcus. The absence of growth 

 at 23 C., formerly thought to be of diagnostic value, has 

 proved unreliable; some meningococci show a degree of 

 growth at this temperature, though it is never profuse. 

 Further, certain forms of Micrococr/us flavus refuse to 

 grow at 23 C., and Gaskell finds that, at this temperature, 

 Micrococcus catarrhalis gives only a feeble growth that 

 soon fails. Nasgar and ivar-nasgar have proved unsatis- 

 factory for throat swabs. Agar or nasgar, smeared with 

 a few drops of fresh human blood are used by some workers 

 in preference to other media, but pea-flour-trypsin-agar 

 (in its final form of Trypagar} is also strongly recom- 

 mended. The Report considers Shearer's work on the 

 stimulus of nasal mucus on the meningococcus and Gor- 

 don's work on its inhibition by salivary streptococci. 



Details of Douglas's trypsin-broth, used in the prepara- 

 tion of trypagar, will be found in the Lancet, October 10th, 

 1914. For subsequent work the reader is referred to 

 numbers of The Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps. 



