140 BACTERIOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS. 



COLLECTION OF MATERIAL AT POST- 

 MORTEM EXAMINATIONS. 



The saprophytic bacteria which occur in such vast 

 numbers in the skin and alimentary canal during life 

 undergo very rapid multiplication after death ; hence, 

 in cases where bacteriological examinations have to be 

 made the sectio should be performed as soon as possible 

 after death. 



The materials which should be examined in all cases 

 are the heart-blood, the spleen, and the liver, and the 

 following methods are to be employed. 



The heart-blood should be collected in the method 

 which has been described previously (see p. 42), and 

 cultures may be made upon the spot, or the pipettes 

 sent to a laboratory. 



The spleen may usually be examined in the same way. 

 If it is so firm and hard that no fluid rises into the pipette, 

 it should be treated in the same way as the liver. 



Cultivations should be made from the liver at the 

 time when the autopsy is performed. The organ 

 should be cut in half, and a small portion of the cut 

 surface deeply seared with a hot iron. This area is 

 then to be perforated with a stout platinum needle and 

 the culture media inoculated at once. 



If the material has to be sent to a distance and no 

 culture tubes are at hand a different course must be 

 adopted. The simplest way is to cut out a cube of 

 liver substance from the centre of the organ, and to sear 

 every part of its surface with the flat of a red hot knife. 

 The block (which may be about as large as a lump of 

 sugar) must be dropped at once into a sterilised bottle 

 and sent to the laboratory where the examination is to 

 be made. Another plan is to sear the surface of the 



