578 APPENDIX 
fluid at the ordinary temperature (below 45° C. or 113° F.), are unmail- 
able. Such specimens may be sent in media that remain solid at ordi- 
nary temperature. 
3. No package containing diseased tissue shall be delivered to any 
representative of any of said laboratories until a permit shall have first 
been issued by the Postmaster General, certifying that said institution 
has been found to be entitled, in accordance with the requirements of 
this regulation, to receive such specimens. 
4. (a) Specimens of tubercular sputum (whether disinfected with 
carbolic acid or not disinfected) shall be transmitted in a solid glass vial 
with a mouth not less than 1 in. in diameter and capacity of not more 
than 2 oz., closed by a cork stopper or by metallic serew top protected 
by a rubber or felt washer. Specimens of diphtheria, typhoid, or other 
infectious or communicable diseases or diseased tissue shall be placed in 
a test tube made of tough glass, not over #2 in. in diameter and 
not over 7% ins. in length, closed with a stopper of rubber or cotton and 
sealed with paraffine or covered with a tightly fitting rubber cap. 
(b) The glass vial or test tube shall then be placed in a cylindrical 
tin box, with soldered joints, closed by a metal screw cover with a rubber 
or felt washer. The vial or test tube in this tin box shall be completely 
and evenly surrounded by absorbent cotton, closely packed. 
(c) The tin box, with its contents, must then be inclosed in a closely 
fitting metal, wooden, of papier-mAché block or tube, at least 3 in. 
thick in its thinnest part, of sufficient strength to resist rough handling 
and support the weight of the mails piled in bags. This last tube shall 
be tightly closed with a screw-top cover with sufficient screw threads to 
require at least one and one-half full turns before it will come off, and 
fitted with a felt or rubber washer. (See Fig. 8.) 
5. Specimens of blood dried on glass microscopic slides for the diag- 
nosis of malaria or typhoid fever by the Widal test may be sent in any 
strong mailing case which is not liable to breakage or loss of the specimen 
in transit. 
6. Upon the outside of every package of diseased tissues admitted 
to the mails shall be written or printed the words ‘‘ Specimen for bac- 
teriological examination. This package to be pouched with letter 
mail.” 
