SMALL-POX AND VACCINIA 257 



Dr. Copeman has succeeded in obtaining growths, when 

 inoculation was made into an egg, from a suspension of 

 variolous crusts in salt-and-water. He found that growth 

 proceeded best when the egg so treated was incubated at 

 blood-heat for one month, and that then a pure culture 

 was obtained of a bacillus which, we must admit, is in all 

 probability the bacillus of small-pox. From this culture in 

 egg he proceeded to inoculate a calf, and from it a second 

 calf, and in turn a third. From this last a child was 

 vaccinated, and the vesicles had the normal appearances. 

 Other vaccinations were made from different ' removes ' of 

 the same vaccine, alt of which were satisfactory. Un- 

 fortunately, the calves used were already employed in the 

 production of vaccine lymph, and hence the experiments 

 cannot be regarded as so absolutely convincing as they 

 would have been had the animals been used for the pur- 

 poses of these experiments alone. Dr. Copeman's experi- 

 ments are, however, in process of repetition, and when 

 fully confirmed cannot fail to be of the greatest value. 



Dr. Elein {Local Government Board Report, 1896-1897) 

 has repeated Dr. Copeman's experiments of inoculating 

 hens' eggs with vaccine lymph and variolous matter, but 

 failed to obtain any definite result. He obtained more 

 satisfactory results, however, by the use of solid media. 

 Klein in his experiments made use of glycerine as a means 

 of inhibiting the growth of extraneous organisms present 

 in the variolous crusts. His procedure was as follows : 

 Ordinary nutrient agar and glycerine agar having been 

 melted and poured out into separate sterile Petri dishes 

 and allowed to set, a sample of the emulsion of smashed 

 small-pox crusts was drawn up into a freshly-made glass 

 capillary pipette, and three droplets therefrom were de- 

 posited upon the surfaces of each of the media in question. 

 Next, with the flat blade of a sterile platinum spatula (bent 



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