560 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
sufficient to kill the spores. The spore-forming organisms may now be 
isolated by plate culture. 
Bacteria Harpoon.* — Dr. Unna has devised an apparatus for fishing 
out bacteria from minute and particular colonies. It is called a harpoon 
and the idea of the inventor was to replace an objective by a needle. 
Hence the apparatus is intended to be fitted on to the Zeiss sliding 
objective-changer. The harpoon is constructed of a tube of metal, the 
proximal end being threaded to screw into the slide and the distal 
split in order that a needle may be inserted. The needle is fixed in 
position by means of a screw. 
The instrument is manipulated in the simplest manner. First, it is 
necessary to ascertain if the search-lens and the harpoon are centered. 
This is done by means of a cross-thread ocular, and if a hole made by 
the needle-point, say, in the cultivation plate, centres accurately with 
the crossing-point of the threads, then the desired colony is placed in 
the exact position ; the lens is exchanged for the harpoon, the point of the 
needle is screwed down on the colony ; then having been screwed up 
the harpoon is removed, the inoculation made, and then the needle 
disinfected and so on. 
It is obvious that the only difficulty in working this apparatus arises 
in connection with the centering of the search-lens and the needle, and 
this, as the author says, is for the microscopist a trivial affair. 
Strauss’ Method for quickly Diagnosing Glanders. t — Herr G. M. 
Finkel stein records a series of experiments made for the purpose of 
* Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xi. (1892) pp. 278-80. 
f Tom. cit., pp. 433-8. 
