830 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
from crude sewage to 80° for ten minutes ; tlie still living spores were 
then further isolated by plate cultivation, either with or without previous 
incubation of the broth tube. 
When the micro-organisms were to be photographed, they were 
stained with methyl-violet, and as this stain transmits chemically active 
rays, actinic contrast was obtained by using a coloured screen and iso- 
chromatic plates ; the apparatus employed was of the simplest kind, and 
the source of illumination was a common duplex paraffin lamp. 
Simple Method for obtaining Leprosy Bacilli from living Lepers.* 
— Dr. A. Favrat and Dr. F. Christmann state that by the following 
method, which also possesses the merit of improving the patient’s 
appearance, leprosy bacilli can be easily obtained in quantity. The 
skin is first purified with soap, 1 per cent, sublimate solution, alcohol, 
and ether. One or more nodules are then burnt with a Paquelin’s 
cautery. The cauterized place is then coated over with collodion, and 
lastly is protected by aseptic bandages. After 3-4 days (not later), the 
bandage having been removed and the sore washed with spirit, the scab 
is raised with a red-hot spoon and the subjacent layer of matter scraped 
off or inoculated directly on the cultivation medium. The sore rapidly 
heals, and no trace of the leprosy nodule remains. 
Microscopical examination reveals an enormous quantity of bacilli, 
together with pus corpuscles and broken-down matter. The bacilli lie 
scattered about without any definite arrangement, occasionally being 
observed in little heaps, but never inside cells. 
Cultivations made from the bacilli were unsuccessful, while the 
inoculation experiments are as yet unconcluded. 
(4) Staining- and Injecting. 
Method for fixing Preparations treated by Sublimate or Silver 
(Golgi’s Method.Xt — Sig. A. Obregia gives a method for rendering pre- 
parations treated by Golgi’s sublimate or silver procedure so permanent 
that they may be afterwards stained and protected with a cover-glass. 
The sublimate or silver preparations are sectioned without any 
imbedding or after having been imbedded in paraffin or celloidin. In 
the latter case care must be taken not to use alcohol weaker than 94 or 
95 per cent., at any rate for the silver preparation. The sections are 
then transferred from absolute alcohol to the following mixture : — 1 per 
cent, gold chloride solution, 8-10 drops, and absolute alcohol, 10 ccm., 
which should have been made half an hour previously, and exposed to 
diffuse light. After sections are deposited therein, the vessel containing 
them is placed in the dark. The silver is gradually replaced by gold, 
and the mercury changed into gold amalgam. Finally, black delicate 
designs appear on a white field. According to the thickness of the 
section, the fluid is allowed to act from fifteen to thirty minutes, but 
even longer is not harmful. Thereupon the sections are quickly washed 
first in 50 per cent, alcohol, then in distilled water, and finally in a 
10 per cent, solution of hyposulphite of soda, in which, according to 
• Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u Parasitenk., x. (1891) pp. 119-22. 
+ Amer. Mon. Micr. Journ., xii. (1891) p. 210. £ee Virchow’s Archiv, cxxii. 
(1890). 
