724 S. WH1TBECK. 
that perhaps the abscess had originally resulted from infec¬ 
tion with pathogenic organisms, and that these had been 
killed out by the non-pathogenic ones. 
In connection with this work some experiments were 
made to determine the antiseptic, or rather the disinfecting, 
power of hydro-napthol and peroxide of hydrogen. In the 
experiments made by Mr. McClannahan, now a graduate of 
the Veterinary Department of the Iowa Agricultural and 
Mechanical College, hydro-napthol did not prove to have as 
strong disinfecting powers as has been supposed. The same 
general plan used by Dr. Abbott, of John Hopkins Univer¬ 
sity, in his experiments with corrosive sublimate was followed 
by McClannahan. In the experiments with peroxide hydro¬ 
gen the day-old cultures of the S. P. aureus bouillon were 
used. The peroxide was added to the cultures in such quan¬ 
tities that the organisms were in one, five, ten, twenty-five, 
fifty and one hundred per cent, solutions of that drug. Plate 
cultures were then made in one, five and ten minutes respec¬ 
tively. An examination on the third day showed many colo¬ 
nies of the aureus in the plates made from the one, five and 
ten per cent, solutions. It may be said, however, that those 
made after ten minutes showed less colonies than those made 
in one and five minutes. From the twenty-five, fifty and one 
hundred percent, solutions plates were not made, but Esmarch 
roll tubes instead. The cultures being made after one and 
ten minutes, no growth developed in any except the one min¬ 
ute tube from the twenty-five per cent, solution. Agar-agar 
tubes were inoculated from all the different per cent, solutions 
of peroxide of hydrogen after thirty minutes, and only the 
one made from the one per cent, solution developed any 
growth. Hence it would seem that the longer H 2 0 2 was in 
contact with the organism the more thorough was the disin¬ 
fection, and that in a weak solution good results could not be 
expected. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
Abbott, A. C.: Corrosive sublimate as a disinfectant against 
the staphylococcus pyogenes aureus. In Johns Hopkins Hos¬ 
pital Bulletin. 
