882 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



isolated from putrefactive foci, in pure hydrogen or in carbonic acid 

 gas, is, however, original. 



Two ordinary test-tubes, one 20 cm. long, of strong but easily 

 fusiblo glass, and provided with a secondary tube drawn off to a point, 

 the other about two-thirds the length, are united about their lower 

 third by a small glass tube. The larger tube is closed by a cotton- 

 wool plug, while the smaller is filled almost to the mouth with 

 cotton wool. After the apparatus is sterilized by heating to 170° (J., 

 the larger test-tube is drawn out, pretty thin, at its upper third, and 

 its lower fourth filled with Koch's gelatin. After waiting several 

 days to see if it remain unclouded, it is inoculated with the fungi to 

 be examined, and the upper end melted off where it was drawn out. 

 The side tube and the connecting pipe are then drawn out fine, the 

 latter about the middle. The smaller test-tube is fitted with a 

 caoutchouc plug perforated by a glass tube in connection by a rubber 

 pipe with the gas apparatus. As soon as the fore part of the side- 

 tube is broken off the gas rushes in, filtering through the cotton-wool 

 plug in the smaller test-tube, whereby all impurities, especially Bac- 

 teria, are prevented from entering. 



A quarter of an hour suffices to drive all the air from out both 

 tubes and to replace it with the desired gas. \\ bile the stream is in 

 full flow, the points of the side- and the connecting-tubes are melted 

 off. In this way any gas can be supplied to a gelatin cultivation 

 without possibility of escape. 



New Hardening Mixture.* — Dr. J. B. List has suggested a 

 hardening mixture which, he says, gives pre-eminently satisfactory 

 results with delicate and complex tissues. It consists of a half 

 saturated watery solution of sublimate, to every 1 ccm. of which solu- 

 tion is added one drop of picrosulphuric acid. Histological relations 

 are not only well preserved, but delicate easily lacerable organs 

 acquire a consistence which enables them to withstand teasing out 

 with needles. 



The author's method is merely to put two or three drops of the 

 solution by means of a pipette on the exposed organs, and allow it to 

 work for two or three minutes. He then washes with distilled water, 

 and mounts in glycerin. After-staining was found to be very easy, 

 picrocarmine being usually adopted. By this method the author 

 succeeded in demonstrating the intestinal canal, nervous system, &c, 

 of Coccida. 



Stein's Simple Imbedding Apparatus.f — Prof. S. v. Stein recom- 

 mends instead of the clamp arrangement on the microtome, a metal 

 box open above, and consisting of two tubes of tin. The undermost 

 tube, provided with a bottom, is 10 mm. high ; the upper one, 30 mm. 

 high, is pushed over it. From the floor of the box project three screws, 

 4 mm. high, for the better adhesion of the imbedding mass. When 

 used the upper tube is oiled, the imbedding mass poured in until the 

 screws are covered, the specimens adjusted and then the metal tube 



* Zeitschr. f. Wiss, Mikr., iii. (1886) pp. 43-4. 

 t Centralbl. Med. Wiss., 1884, p. 100. 



