PKOCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 179 



Mr. F. R. Cheshire exhibited and described an improved form of 

 inoculating-needle for use in connection with bacterium culture-tabes. It 

 was well known that the usual plan was to have a platinum wire fused into 

 the end of a piece of glass rod, which served as a handle ; needles of this 

 kind had the merit of being easily made, and being also inexpensive. The 

 one he exhibited cost rather more, but possessed sundry advantages which 

 he thought might compensate for the extra outlay. It was mounted in a 

 wooden handle having a square ferule, which prevented it from rolling 

 when placed upon a surface which was not level ; in this was inserted a 

 piece of very small silver tube, at the end of which was the platinum wire. 

 On the tube a circular disc of silver was fixed, which, when placed over 

 the flame of a lamp, rapidly became hot, and communicated the heat to the 

 needle — silver being a very good conductor of heat. The silver tube, being 

 very much less thick than the glass rod, could more easily be introduced 

 without coming into contact with the sides of the glass tube ; but a much 

 greater advantage than this also arose from its comparatively small size. 

 The diameter of the ordinary culture-tubes was generally about 1/2 in., 

 whilst that of the glass rods was about 1/4 in. On introducing the needle, 

 therefore, the glass rod displaced a large quantity of air from the tube, and 

 on its withdrawal the indraught would cause a quantity of outside air to pass 

 in, and in this way impurities might be admitted, whereas, owing to the 

 small size of the silver tube, the displacement of air by it was extremely 

 small. He also thought that there might be less danger to the operator 

 in the use of the new pattern, because the needle — perhaps charged with 

 anthrax — could not come in contact with the table at all if laid down u2)on 

 it. It would also be found more convenient to use it in cases where it w^as 

 desired to separate the different forms in a colony. In order to keep these 

 needles intact, they could readily be inserted into small pieces of glass 

 tube, and when thus placed in a case they could be carried about with great 

 facility. 



Dr. E. M. Crookshank thought this kind of needle might be found very 

 useful in some cases, but he fancied that most bacteriologists would prefer to 

 have the ordinary kind with the platinum wire simply fixed in the end of . 

 a glass rod by holding over a Bunsen burner. As regarded the suggestion 

 that there might be danger from anthrax getting upon the operating-table 

 by the use of the ordinary glass rod, he pointed out that in practice it 

 should be made a constant habit always to sterilize a needle after use by 

 passing it at once through the flame without putting it down. 



Prof. Bell called attention to some specimens exhibited of Tsenia nana, 

 the smallest of the human tapeworms, originally found by Bilharz in 

 Egypt in 1850. Though extremely rare, it had the great advantage, to the 

 physiologist at least (though perhaps not to the patient), of being found in 

 considerable numbers. In the present instance the worms had been found 

 in quantities in the duodenum of a girl aged seven years, at Bellegarde. 

 The latest specimen met with was only 15 mm. long. Prof. Bell further 

 referred to the observations of Leuckhart on the subject. 



Mr. J. D. Hardy called attention to a statement by Dr. 0. Zacharias in 

 the October number of the Journal (p. 799) with reference to the desiccation 

 of rotifers, and in which it was stated that they could never be revived 

 after desiccation. He thought a protest should be entered against this, as 

 it was within his knowledge that " revivification " had taken place over 



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