230 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
B. Technique.* * * § 
Cl) Collecting- Objects, including: Culture Processes. 
Coloured Nutrient Media, f — Dr. C. J. Pothberger records in 
tabular form the results of his experiments with bacteria on coloured 
nutrient media. In all. some thirty-five different pigments were used. 
Three groups of bacteria were inoculated on agar tubes coloured with 
the different pigments. The bacterial groups were vibrio, coli, and 
Friedlander. For the details the original should be consulted. 
Apparatus for Anaerobic Plate Cultures. | — Herr A. Klein has 
devised an apparatus for anaerobic cultivation, which combines the use 
of the vacuum air pump and pyrogallic acid for the removal and absorp- 
tion of air. On a ground-glass plate is placed a bell-jar 18 cm. in 
diameter and 30 cm. high. At the top is an aperture plugged with a 
caoutchouc stopper perforated for the insertion of a glass tube, which is 
connected with the air pump. 
At the bottom of the bell-jar is placed a flat glass pan which just 
fits into the bell-jar. In this are placed 2*5 grm. of pyrogallic acid. 
Inside the bell is also placed a small apparatus composed of two U- 
shaped tubes supported on a metal stand. One end of each tube is 
closed and the other open. The small tube is filled with mercury, 
and is provided with a scale for registering the pressure in the bell-jar. 
The closed limb of the wide tube is quite filled, and the short limb 
partially filled, with 60 per cent, caustic potash solution. To the latter 
limb is connected a siphon, wherein the caustic potash solution stands a 
little higher than in the short open leg of the tube. When the pressure 
has sunk to the attainable minimum, the potash solution in the open 
limb and in the siphon has risen high enough to bring the siphon into 
action ; the potash solution is thus brought into contact with the pyro- 
gallic acid in the pan. As soon as the siphon is empty, the tube at the 
top of the bell-jar is clamped, and the apparatus is ready to be placed 
in the incubator. There is sufficient room inside the bell-jar for ten 
Petri’s capsules. 
The advantages claimed for this apparatus are that it is ready for 
use in less than ten minutes ; there is complete removal of oxygen, as 
is indicated by the colour of the caustic potash solution ; it works with 
perfect certainty. 
Cultivation Medium for Bacillus of Hooping Cough.§ — In the 
course of a long description of a bacterium found in the sputum of 
cases of pertussis and identical with the microbe already described by 
Czaplew’ski and Hensel,|| Dr. 0, Zusch states that he has obtained very 
favourable cultivation results from the use of ascites or anasarka- 
glycerin-agar. This medium answers better than the Loeffler’s serum 
employed by Czaplewski and Hensel. 
* This subdivision contains (1) Collecting Objects, including [Culture Pro- 
cesses ; (2) Preparing Objects ; (3) Cutting, including Imbedding and Microtomes ; 
(4) Staining and Injecting ; (5) Mounting, including slides, preservative fluids, &c. ; 
(6) Miscellaneous. 
t Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par., l te Abt., xxv. (1899) pp. 15-17, 69-75. 
X Op. cit., xxiv. (1898) pp. 967-71 (2 figs.). 
§ Tom. cit., pp. 721-7, 769-79 (1 pi.). || Cf. this Journal, 1898, p. 227. 
