408 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1165 



the medical school, $200,000. At the same 

 time the Agricultural and Mechanical Arts 

 College at Stillwater was granted: Science 

 hall, $100,000; gymnasium, $100,000. 



The residue of the estate of James Buch- 

 anan Brady, which is estimated as more than 

 four million dollars, is bequeathed to the New 

 York Hospital on West Sixteenth Street, ISTew 

 York City, to establish the James Buchanan 

 Brady Foundation for a urological institute, 

 similar to that at Johns Hopkins Hospital at 

 Baltimore, which Mr. Brady had endowed 

 during his life with $200,000. An additional 

 $300,000 is left in trust to the Johns Hopkins 

 Hospital for the maintenance of the institute. 



The Harvard Medical School will provide 

 instruction for the senior class during the 

 summer, with two weeks holiday. It is optional 

 with students whether they will begin their 

 fourth year's work on June 4 or September 24. 



Owing to the national emergency, the Cor- 

 nell University Medical College announces 

 that it will continue instruction for members 

 of its senior class throughout the summer so 

 that they may be graduated with the degree of 

 M.D. on or about January 1, 1917. 



Professor C. E. Eichaeds, professor of 

 mechanical engineering and head of the de- 

 partment since 1911, has been appointed dean 

 of the College of Engineering and director of 

 the Engineering Experiment Station of the 

 University of Hlinois to succeed Dr. W.. F. 

 M. Goss who has resigned to become president 

 of the Eailway Car Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion of New York. 



Dr. Chas. Brookover, of the University of 

 Kansas, has been elected professor of anatomy 

 and director of the department at the Univer- 

 sity of Louisville. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



A VIABLE TEN-YEAR-OLD CULTURE OF 

 BACILLUS PARATYPHOSUS BETA 



As the usual text-books, manuals and cur- 

 rent literature make but little or no mention 

 of the length of life of individual bacteria 

 the following record may not be without 

 interest. 



In 1909, when I began teaching bacteriol- 

 ogy at Howard University, among the stock 

 cultures of organisms in the laboratory was 

 one labeled " Paratyphoid Schottmiiller 1-14^ 

 06." It -was a deep agar stab made in a nar- 

 row test tube and the tube instead of being 

 closed in the usual manner by a cotton plug 

 had been sealed off in the flame. Hermetically 

 sealed, the agar cultture had been prevented 

 from drying. The culture had been prepared 

 three years previously by Dr. W. W. Alleger. 



On January 17, 1916, ten years and three 

 days after the culture had been made, the 

 tube was broken open and the organisms 

 transferred to Eussell double sugar. The char- 

 acteristic red color and gas did not appear in 

 the butt of the tube on the first transfer. 

 Transfers were then made from this tube to 

 other double sugar tubes at irregular intervals 

 during a couple of months. At about the fifth 

 transfer the organism showed its character- 

 istic reaction on the double sugar. Its fer- 

 mentation of separate sugars was tried, as 

 well as other cultural tests, and the agglutina- 

 tion test with' paratyphoid beta immune serum 

 was done. All these indicated that the organ- 

 ism was Bacillus paratyphosus beta. 



During the ten years it had always been 

 kept in a closet away from the light, along 

 with the other stock cultures. The tempera- 

 ture in closet varied during the first five years 

 from as high as 32° C. in summer to nearly as 

 low as 0° C. in winter. During the last five 

 years the temperature was never lower than 

 15° C. 



M. "W. Lyon, Jr. 



George Washington TTnivebsity 



a method for killing turtles 



Killing turtles for class purposes is more 

 or less of a task depending upon the equip- 

 ment at hand. Even though a closed tank is 

 available for administering gas, thirty min- 

 utes to an hour is required for anesthetiz- 

 ing these reptiles and then they may revive 

 during dissection. Another expedient some- 

 times resorted to is to place the specimens in 

 boiling water for a few minutes. This has 

 its objections. I have observed attempts to 



