COLLECTION OF MATERIAL. 99 



cultures by plating, and may be studied further, as the occasion 

 requires. 



At autopsies on human subjects the same principles apply 

 as in the case of autopsies upon animals (see pages 94 and 95). 

 Plate- cultures should be made, if possible, directly from the 

 organs. In all cases organs should be entered by the platinum 

 wire through burned surfaces. The method of isolation by 

 streaking the platinum wire containing the material under ex- 

 amination lightly, several times, over the surface of an agar 

 plate, will be found convenient. At the same time smears 

 should be made from the organs upon cover-glasses for micro- 

 scopic study, and portions of the organs should be saved and 

 hardened in alcohol or formalin. 



A convenient device for the collection of infected material is a 

 stiff wire wound with a pledget of 

 absorbent cotton at one end, the 

 whole sterihzed in a tube, as recom- 

 mended by Warren for collecting 



pus and other fluids for examination, 



, ... ,1 ,., TT -T. 1 Fig. 58. — Sternberg Btjle. 



and as mtroduced by W. H. Park 



for the collection of material from 



the throat in cases of suspected diphtheria (Fig. 78). 



The so-called Sternberg bulb* is valuable for the collection 



of fluid materials for examination. A piece of glass tubing 



is taken and drawn out to a long, fine tube, and a bulb blown 



at the other end. To introduce the substance into the bulb, 



the expanded end is heated in the flame; the point introduced 



below the surface of the fluid which is to be collected; as the 



bulb cools, the air in it contracts and draws the fluid into it. 



When it has taken up as much as it will, the point may be 



sealed off in the flame. 



* These bulbs weie first recommended by Fliigge. Die Mikrooganismen. 

 I Auflage, p. 662. 1886. 



