DIPHTHERIA. 45 



cultures or send a swab to the laboratory for examina- 

 tion. 



Swabs and outfits are provided by the laboratory 

 where the examination is made, or can be bought 

 from most manufacturing chemists and instrument 

 makers. A swab consists of a steel or copper 

 (aluminium would be better) wire, the extremity of 

 which is covered drumstick fashion with a tightly 

 fitting roll of cotton-wool. The other end is pushed 

 through a cork, and the whole is contained in a stout 

 glass tube. It is sterilised before use. These swabs 

 may be readily made at home. A test-tube is fitted 

 with a good cork through which is passed a stout steel 

 knitting needle. This should be long enough to pass 

 nearly to the bottom of the tube when the cork is in 

 place, and the end which is to be outside the tube 

 should be cut off short. The other must be roughened 

 by a few strokes of a file. A small piece of cotton-wool 

 (unmedicated) is then held between the thumb and 

 finger of the left hand, transfixed with the roughened 

 end of the wire, and twisted round it. The swab is 

 now placed loosely in the tube and sterilised by dry 

 heat (see ante, p. 7). It is allowed to cool in the 

 steriliser, and the cork is pushed home into the tube as 

 soon as it is cold enough to handle. These swabs will 

 keep indefinitely, and a stock of them should always be 

 kept at hand. After use the cotton-wool should be 

 burnt off in a Bunsen's burner or spirit lamp, and 

 another piece applied and the whole re-sterilised. 



If a practitioner should see a supposed case of diph- 

 theria when he is unprovided with a swab he can 

 readily extemporise one which will answer sufficiently 

 well out of some cotton-wool (non-medicated), a wooden 

 skewer or pen-holder, and a glass phial. The wool is 



