498 
THOMPSON YATES LABORATORIES REPORT 
At autopsy the technique adopted was to burn the surface of the organ thoroughly 
with the thermocautery over an area about 2-3 inches in diameter, the central part 
being more thoroughly charred ; a large loop of 2*5 mm. platinum wire (13x3 mm.) 
was employed to convey material ; three of these loopfuls was put into each tube. 
For fluids, such as pericardial and bile, drawn-out glass tubes were thrust through the 
wall after free cauterization ; cerebrospinal fluid was taken in syringe by lumbar 
puncture after cleansing the skin with lysol solution. The liver, heart, etc., were 
always left in situ until the cultures had been laid ; the spleen and kidneys were 
removed first (though in general I prefer to inoculate from the former before removal), 
Mesenteric glands, etc., were cut out with the thermocautery and held in sterilized 
forceps. 
The primary inoculations were made into broth and dextrose broth and kept at 
37 0 and at room temperature, i.e., about 25° C. ; later in some cases glycerine (5 °/ 0 ) broth 
was used. Both aerobic and anerobic (hydrogen and alkaline pyrogallol) conditions 
were used in each case. Whenever growth occurred and was found to be suggestive 
of typhoid-like or colon-like bacteria, the organisms were isolated and tried on fer- 
mentation tests with dextrose, lactose, and sucrose added to litmus-sugar-free broth. 
An inspection of the tabulated statement on page 501, shews that in general our 
media remained sterile ; altogether, cultivations were tried from thirteen corpses. If 
we may except the instances of the lymphatic glands, where the technique is more difficult 
to ensure freedom from chance contamination, it will be seen that coliform bacilli were 
only met with twice, when those from the different organs gave the same fermentative 
reactions and were presumably identical (all three sugars attacked in both cases). 
Another case yielded signs of general coccal infection (No. 6). 
Only in one case (No. 2) was a member of the 'enteritidis or hog-cholera group' 
met with, and then only in the bile, but in pure culture. It was very actively motile 
and typhoid like ; it did not grow luxuriantly like many other members of the group, 
and herein also was typhoid-like ; it fermented dextrose, but not either of the other two 
sugars ; in litmus milk whey it grew very poorly and remained faintly acid and almost 
clear, alkali formation only occurred after more than three weeks ; parallel cultures of 
B. icteroides in whey began to go alkaline after about a week, whilst a culture 
labelled ' le sage ' (kindly given by Surgeon-General Wyman in Washington) went 
alkaline at the fourth day after the habit of the rapidly-growing Gartner type of 
B. enteritidis. It appeared that this bacillus from post-mortem No. 2 was rather of 
the type of Gwyn's and of CushingY bacilli. The serum of two convalescents 
had no agglutinating effect upon this bacillus ' bile ' at post-mortem No. 2 at 1 in 20 
dilution. It would seem to be legitimate to argue that if Sanarelli's bacillus were 
of real importance in the etiology of yellow fever, we should have met with it in 
more than one single isolated instance, in which it will be noted that the liver, spleen, 
1. Gu yn .md Cushing, Journal of Experimental Medicine, 1901. 
