THE OBSERVATION OF THE INOCULATED ANIMAL. 89 



THE OBSERVATION OF THE INOCULATED ANIMAL. 



1. After inoculation animals should be observed carefully and 

 all changes in their condition noted. Their temperature should 

 be taken several times a day, their body weight recorded every 

 day under the same conditions ; their behavior as to food 

 noticed ; the state of their fur and any sign of paralysis or of 

 convulsions carefully observed. 



2. After death, the autopsy should be performed as soon as 

 practicable. For that purpose the animal should be laid 

 upon its back on a board, its four legs stretched widely apart 

 and attached to the sides of the board by strings, or nailed, 

 and the nose should also be carefully nailed down. By means 

 of a 5 per cent, carbolic acid solution the skin of the. body 

 from the chin to the pubis should be carefully sterilized and 

 all hair shaved off. The place of inoculation is now to be 

 carefully examined and described. 



Examination of the Abdominal and Pelvic Contents. After 

 this an incision is made in the skin only, and that carefully 

 dissected away from the subcutaneous tissue and hooked back 

 so as to prevent its contaminating the underlying tissues. 

 After this by means of a metallic spatula, heated to redness, 

 the muscular tissue is singed all along the line of the next 

 incision, along the linea alba from the pubis to the sternum, 

 along the arches of the rib and obliquely from the sterno- 

 clavicular junctions to the tip of the last two ribs. With a 

 pair of sterilized blunt-pointed scissors the peritoneal cavity 

 is opened. All changes within it are carefully noted, cultures 

 made from all exudates, or inflammatory products apparent, 

 bouillon, agar, and blood-serum tubes being used for that pur- 

 pose, and cover-glasses being also prepared for the microscope. 

 Then, by means of the same heated spatula, the surfaces of the 

 different organs are thoroughly singed, and with a spear-head, 

 thick sterilized platinum wire, the organ is penetrated and 

 cultures made from the small pieces of organs or blood 

 adhering to the wire ; bouillon, agar, and blood-serum being 

 used, and cover-glasses being also prepared. 



From all cultures so obtained plate cultures should be made. 



