ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
403 
and suitable, and tl at much time is spared. One kilogramme of meat 
freed from fat, &c., is cut up into small pieces and immersed in double 
its weight of water. It is then boiled, skimmed, strained, and replaced 
on the fire ; 0*5 per cent, of pepton and 0 * 25 per cent, of sodium 
chloride are added. The original bulk is restored by adding water, and 
16-18 per cent, of gelatin is put in. The solution is then placed in a 
porcelain or glass vessel, twice as high as it is broad, and kept in a 
Chamberland’s autoclave for a quarter of an hour at 105°, and under 
1/2 atmospheric pressure. The gas is then turned off and the solution 
allowed to stand. After the lapse of twenty-four hours the vessel is 
removed from the stove, and the solidified gelatin, set free with a knife, 
is placed upside clown on filter paper. The top, in which all the 
impurities have deposited, is then cut off with a thread or wire, and the 
rest is cut up and the pieces put into a flask and boiled. When liquefied 
it is distributed into test-tubes, &c., and these are afterwards sterilized 
discon tinuously . 
Method for Cultivating Tubercle Bacilli.* — Sigg. Morpurgo and 
Tirelli made little chambers or boxes of celloidin by moulding the 
material on blocks of unequal size. The chambers were sterilized by 
boiling, and then pieces of tuberculous organs placed inside. The little 
tubes were then filled with cell-free serum by inserting them under the 
skin, or in the abdominal cavity of a rabbit. After some days small 
white flecks were seen collected at the bottom of the tube, and these 
consisted of tubercle bacilli, as was proved by inoculation and culti- 
vation. In tubes similarly prepared, but not placed inside an 
animal, the bacilli were not found to increase. Some of the boxes placed 
under the skin excited suppuration, while those placed within the 
abdominal cavity had no prejudicial effect on the animal’s health, even 
after two months. It seems possible that this method might be useful 
for cultivating organisms which at present have not been successfully 
reared on artificial media. 
Simplification of Method for Diagnosing Diphtheria.f — Dr. N. 
Sakharoflf proposes as a cultivation medium for diphtheria egg-albumen 
instead of coagulated blood-serum. Fresh eggs are hard boiled and 
then shelled. The white is then cut up into longish pieces and these 
placed in test-tubes in the bottom of which is a little water in order to 
prevent the albumen from drying. On this medium at 35-40° the 
diphtheria bacilli appear in twenty-four hours as small round convex 
colonies. 
Simple Apparatus for Collecting and Preserving Pus, Blood, &c„ 
for Microscopical or Bacteriological Work.£ — Dr. von Lagerheim has 
devised a simple apparatus for the collection, preservation, and trans- 
portation in a sterile condition of pus, blood, vaccines, &c. A test-tube 
is stopped with a doubly perforated cork. Into one hole is inserted a 
* Arch. Ital. de Biologie, xviii. p. 187. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Para- 
sitenk., xiii. (1893) pp. 74-5. 
f Ann. Inst. Pasteur, vi. (1892) No. 6. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., 
xiii. (1893) pp. 143-4. 
X Annales de la Universidad Central del Ecuador, ser. vii. No. 48, 1893, Quito. 
See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xiii. (1893) pp. 501-2. 
2 e 2 
