CHAPTER XV. 
THE PROCURING OF MATERIAL FOR BACTERIOLOGICAL 
EXAMINATION FROM THOSE SUFFERING FROM 
DISEASE. 
A LONG experience has taught me that physicians 
very frequently take a large amount of trouble, and 
yet, on account of not carrying out certain simple but 
necessary precautions, make worthless cultures or send 
material almost useless for bacteriological study. 
In making cultures from diseased tissues various pro- 
cedures may be carried out, according to the facilities 
which the physician has and the kind of information 
that he desires to obtain. From the dead body culture 
material should be removed at the first moment possible 
after death. Every hour’s delay makes the results less 
reliable. From both dead and living tissues the less 
the alteration that occurs in any substance between its 
removal from the body and its inoculation upon or in 
culture media or animals the more exact the informa- 
tion which will be obtained from its examination. If 
the material is allowed to dry many bacteria will be 
destroyed in the process, and certain forms which were 
present will be obliterated, or, at least, entirely altered 
in the proportion which they bear to others. If pos- 
sible, therefore, culture media should be inoculated 
in the neighborhood of the patient or dead body. For 
that purpose a bacteriologist should take the most suit- 
