COLLECTION OF MATERIAL AT POST-MORTEM 211 



retains a place as a method of diagnosis, but very few bac- 

 teriologists consider it necessary or even useful in con- 

 trolling the dosage and intervals in vaccine-therapy. Note 

 to Fourth Edition.] 



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 bac- 

 teriological 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. 34), and cultures may 

 be made upon the spot, or the pipettes sealed at both ends 

 and taken to the 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 taken to a distance, and no cul- 

 ture-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 sterilized bottle. Another plan is to sear the surface 

 of the block, and then to tie a piece of string round it and 

 dip it quickly into melted paraffin (a candle will do), and 

 allow the coating, to set; the dipping is to be repeated several 

 times, and the specimen (string and all) may then be packed 

 without further precautions. In any case it must reach the 

 laboratory as soon as possible. 



