640 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
and allowed to putrefy for 30 days. It was then filtered and sterilized 
twice over, and kept in hermetically sealed tubes. When required for 
injection it was heated to 31°-38°, 10-11 ccm. per kilogram being in- 
jected into the saphenous or femoral vein. The blood examined was 
obtained from an artery in the ear. 
Staining Tubercle Bacilli.* — M. Letulle advises the following pro- 
cedure for staining tubercle bacilli under any condition of tissue or 
fixation method : — The preparations are to be immersed for 1 to 24 
hours in carbol-rubin and then transferred to a 14 per cent, solution of 
permanganate of potash. This is followed by immersion in a saturated 
aqueous freshly prepared solution of sulphurous acid. The preparations 
must then be w r ashed freely in water, after which they may, if so desired, 
be double-stained by means of a saturated aqueous solution of methyl- 
blue. The sections should then be washed until they are almost deco- 
lorized, after which they are dehydrated in alcohol, passed through 
xylol, and mounted in balsam. 
Staining Flagella of Bacteria.! — Dr. R. Bunge uses as a mordant 
a mixture of aqueous solution of tannin and liquor ferri sesquichlor., 
the latter with water in the proportion of 1 to 20 aq. dest. Three parts 
of the tannin solution and one part of the dilute iron solution are then 
mixed, and to 10 ccm. of the mixture 1 ccm. of a saturated aqueous 
solution of fuchsin is added. The mordant is not to be used fresh, for 
it works better after having been exposed to the air for some days or 
weeks. The author obtained good results without any addition of acid 
or alkali with Proteus, Bad. coli, typhus, and cholera. After carefully 
fixing the film on the cover glass, the filtered mordant and the prepara- 
tion are to be kept in contact for about five minutes. The preparation 
is then washed, dried, and stained with phenol-fuchsin in the usual way. 
Demonstration of Influenza Bacillus.! — Dr. M. Borchardt found 
Pfeiffer’s influenza bacillus in thirty-five out of fifty cases examined. 
In order to be successful Pfeiffer’s directions must be strictly observed. 
The sputum must be quite fresh and the lump washed in a sterile water. 
Cover-glass preparations are then made from the centre of the mass and 
stained with dilute Ziehl’s fuchsin (1-10 or 20) after which they are 
washed in water or decolorized in dilute acetic acid. Sometimes the 
preparations show other bacteria as well as influenza bacilli, sometimes 
the latter are impure cultivations. The bacilli should be fairly evenly 
distributed over the field ; they are usually free, though sometimes inside 
cells or, when mixed with mucous flakes, in little clumps or swarms. 
The influenza bacilli may be demonstrated in the sputum for at least 
a week. Microscopical examination is not always sufficient for the 
recognition of the bacilli, for the staining differences are sometimes 
considerable, especially when from polar staining they resemble diplo- 
cocci. Even cultivation is sometimes unsatisfactory. For this purpose 
a washed sputum mass is immersed in bouillon, and when thoroughly 
* Bull. Soc. Beige de Microscopie, xx. (1893-4) pp. 184-5. 
t Fortschritte d. Med., xii. (1894) No. 12. Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasi- 
tenk., xvi. (1894) p. 217. 
X Berlin Klin. Wochenschr., 1894, No. 2. See Centralbl/ f. Bakteriol. u. Para- 
eitenk, xvi. (1894) pp. 78-9. 
