DIPHTHERIA. 45 
cultures or send a swab to the laboratory for examina- 
tion. 
Swabs and outfits are provided by the laboratory 
where the examination is made, or can be bought 
from most manufacturing chemists and instrument 
makers. A swab consists of a steel or copper 
(aluminium would be better) wire, the extremity of 
which is covered drumstick fashion with a tightly 
fitting roll of cotton-wool. The other end is pushed 
through a cork, and the whole is contained in a stout 
glass tube. It is sterilised before use. These swabs 
may be readily made at home. A test-tube is fitted 
with a good cork through which is passed a stout steel 
knitting needle. This should be long enough to pass 
nearly to the bottom of the tube when the cork is in 
place, and the end which is to be outside the tube 
should be cut off short. The other must be roughened 
by a few strokes of a file. A small piece of cotton-wool 
(unmedicated) is then held between the thumb and 
finger of the left hand, transfixed with the roughened 
end of the wire, and twisted round it. The swab is 
now placed loosely in the tube and sterilised by dry 
heat (see ante, p. 7). It is allowed to cool in the 
steriliser, and the cork is pushed home into the tube as 
soon as it is cold enough to handle. These swabs will 
keep indefinitely, and a stock of them should always be 
kept at hand. After use the cotton-wool should be 
burnt off in a Bunsen’s burner or spirit lamp, and 
another piece applied and the whole re-sterilised. 
If a practitioner should see a supposed case of diph- 
theria when he is unprovided with a swab he can 
readily extemporise one which will answer sufficiently 
well out of some cotton-wool (non-medicated), a wooden 
skewer or pen-holder, and a glass phial. The wool is 
