600 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
method which fulfils several essential requirements, i. e. it is easily 
carried out, it is not injurious physically or chemically to the material 
to he examined, it is quite safe, and the microscopical picture excellent. 
The method consists in putting 10 ccm. water, 6 ccm. carbolic acid, and 
10-15 ccm. of the sputum into a bottle capable of holding 100 ccm. 
The mixture is thoroughly shaken, 100 ccm. of water are added, and 
having been shaken up again is poured into a conical glass vessel. In 
from 12 hours to a few days the sediment is examined. The sediment 
is obtained by pouring off the supernatant fluid and removing the deposit 
with a pipette. Cover-glass preparations will stain easily with a simple 
alcoholic solution of fuchsin, though, of course, the phenol-fuchsin may 
be used. 
The method is applicable to discharges and fluids of all kinds, e. g. 
milk, urine, faeces, and is specially suited for staining the preparations 
by Czaplewski’s method. 
Pancreatin-digestion of Sputum for Demonstrating Tubercle 
Bacilli.* — Equal quantities of sputum and warm water alkalinised with 
soda are, after having been thoroughly mixed with 0* 1—1*0 grm. of 
pancreatin, placed in an incubator, and in 2-3 hours 0* 1-1*0 grm. 
of pure carbolic acid are added to prevent decomposition. As soon as 
a sediment has formed the supernatant fluid is removed and fresh alkali- 
nised water added and the mixture incubated anew. The process may 
be repeated again in order to diminish the bulk of the sediment, and 
then the deposit is dried on filter-paper and examined. In 24 hours, 
says Dr. Spengler, the amount of sediment is, as a rule, so small that 
only a few cover-glasses are required for its examination. 
The process does not impair the stainability of the tubercle bacilli 
unless the digestion of the sputum have been carried on too long. 
(3) Cutting-, including Imbedding and Microtomes, 
Novelties in Microtomes. f — Herr B. Pensky gives an account of 
recent improvements in and new forms of microtomes. Amongst instru- 
ments which have been already described in this Journal, he mentions 
Strasser’s ribbon microtome for serial sections, J in which the sections 
are made to adhere to a paper band ; Jung’s microtomes ;§ ^“Cam- 
bridge rocking microtome ” ; Minot’s microtome ; || the Reinhold-Giltay 
microtome; If and the Reichert large microtome for brain sections.** 
Besides these he describes the Fromme microtome (seen in fig. 96), in 
which the difficulty of production of an exact prismatic slide-way for the 
knife is obviated by attaching it 1 3 the end of a strong arm movable 
about a vertical axis. The heavy iron base-plate P carries the block B, 
to which is hinged the arm A. which turns about the point a a and 
carries at its end the knife M. The raising of the object is effected by 
a micrometer screw with a divided scale H, the movement of which 
is transferred to the clamp c by a parallelogram guide E attached to the 
upright F. 
* Deutsche Med. Woclienschr., 1895, No. 15. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Para- 
sitenk., l te Abt., xvii. (1895) pp. S07-8. 
t Zeitschr. f. Instrumentenk., xv. (1895) pp. 14-22. 
X See this Journal, 1891, p. 281, aud 1892, p. 703. § Op. cit., 1893, p. 264. 
1| Tom. cit., p. 265. ^ Tom. cit., p. 706. ** Op. cit., 1894, p. 636. 
