Cultivation 



475 



Horse's blood can easily be secured by the introduction of 

 a trocar into the jugular vein ; 5 liters of it can be withdrawn 

 without causing the animal inconvenience or symptoms of 

 weakness. 



The impossibility of 

 making an accurate 

 diagnosis of diph- 

 theria without a bac- 

 teriologic examination 

 has caused many pri- 

 vate physicians and 

 many medical socie- 

 ties and boards of 

 health to equip labor- 

 atories where bacte- 

 riologic examinations 

 can be made. The 

 method requires some 

 apparatus, though a 

 competent bacteriolo- 

 gist can often make 

 shift with a bake- 

 oven, a wash-boiler, 

 and other household 

 furniture, instead of 

 the regular sterilizers 

 and incubators, which 

 are expensive. 



Bacteriologic Di- 

 agnosis. When it is 

 desired to make a 



bacteriologic diagno- etched surface on which to write the name 

 Sis in suspected diph- and address of patients, etc. 

 theria, or to secure the 



bacillus in pure culture, a sterile platinum wire having 

 a small loop at the end, or a swab made by wrapping a 

 little absorbent cotton about the end of a piece of wire 

 and carefully sterilizing it in a test-tube, is introduced 

 into the throat and touched to the false membrane, after 

 which it is carefully smeared over the surface of at least 

 three of the blood-serum mixture tubes, without either 

 again touching the throat or being sterilized. The tubes 

 thus inoculated are stood away in an incubating oven at 



Fig j 4I ._The Providence Health De- 

 partment outfit for diphtheria diagnosis, 



