636 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
The incubator was a copper air-bath supplied with a Page’s gas 
regulator ; it was found to automatically regulate the temperature 
within half a degree. 
On similar principles Dr Klein’s Pork-gelatin'^ was prepared. 
I also hit upon a plan of alhuminising a broth, which seems likely 
to be useful. A fresh hen’s egg was taken, a very small hole drilled 
in the shell, and then a pipette previously sterilised thrust into this 
liole through the membrane into the albumin, and the albumin 
sucked up, and then added to the broth, by momentarily remov- 
ing the cotton-wool plug, and allowing the required quantity to 
liow in ; a liquid is obtained by these simple means, which in the 
majority of instances keeps fresh without odour or turbidity, 
although submitted to a cultivation temperature for days, and is 
more like a fluid tissue than any cultivation fluid hitherto recom- 
mended. It seems pretty certain that so long as the shell and 
membrane of what is popularly called a fresh egg is intact, there 
are no parasitic germs within. 
To infect any of these soils, a glass rod was drawn out very 
thin, the end tipped with sealing wax, and to the hot sealing wax 
a minute fluff of cotton- wool was made to adhere to the wax ; and 
this rod was plunged into the anthrax holding fluid, so as only to 
immerse the sealing wax; having thus charged the threads or 
“fluff,” the plug of one of the flasks was loosened, the thin rod 
passed rapidly down, and broken off short against the bottom of the 
flask, at the same time again plugging firmly ; in this way the in- 
fecting of a flask was accomplished so rapidly that the accidental 
admixture of air germs was reduced to a minimum. 
To ascertain the germicide power of a disinfectant, the little thin 
rod, with its small bead of sealing wax, and the “fluff” which had 
been contaminated by anthrax, was placed in the disinfectant for 
certain known periods of time, then removed and plunged into 
strong alcohol, into ether, or into previously boiled distilled water, 
according to the composition of the disinfectant, so as to dissolve 
out as far as possible the film of the disinfectant adhering to the 
wool. This having been accomplished, a flask of broth was in- 
fected in the manner already described, and the flask submitted 
to the heat of the incubator. If the broth remained perfectly 
clear, then the inference was that the disinfectant had killed the 
