399 urine, blood-serum and nutrient agar, and in every case obtained a typical growth of an organism which answered every morphological characteristic of the true Neisser gonococcus, although this experimenter did not inoculate the human urethra with any of his cultures. The following is a description of his method of preparing the culture soil as given by the author: "The method of preparation of the medium, however, differs from Steinscheider's in that instead of collecting the bloodserum and urine under aseptic precautions and preventing their contamination, these constituents were collected without any special care whatever, and were freed from bacteria by filtration through unglazed porcelain. This filtration has been found to be perfectly feasible, and greatly lessens the amount of labor and skill required in preparing this culture material. Both human and ox-blood serum have been employed, the latter evidently serving quite as well as the former. The details of the method are as follows, although they have been departed from at times in non-essential particulars: A litre of nutrient agar (beef infusion) is prepared in the usual manner, and after filtration is evaporated to about 600 c.c. This concentration is desirable, so that after the dilution with urine and serum the medium may be sufficiently firm. This concentrated agar is then run into test tubes, and the whole sterilized by steam three times. The quantity of agar placed in each tube is smaller than is usual in order to allow for the subsequent addition of the urine and serum. The blood-serum, which need not be free from corpuscles, is first passed through white sand, which is supported in a funnel by filter paper in order to remove as much as possible any particles in suspension, and is then mixed with half its volume of fresh urine. This mixture of urine and blood-serum is next filtered by suction through an unglazed porcelain cylinder into a receiving flask, such as chemists use for similar purposes, by means of a water vacuum pump. This frees the mixture from bacteria. Afterwards the usual precautions are taken to prevent contamination of the filtrate. To the agar in each test-tube, which is fluid and of a temperature of about 40 C., there is added about one-third to one-half its volume of the filtered mixture of urine and blood-serum. This is conveniently accomplished by pouring the mixture from the receiving flask through the lateral tube, inserted near its neck, directly into the tubes. The melting of the agar is best effected in the steam sterilizer in order that any organisms which have found lodgment in the cotton plugs of the tubes may be destroyed. When the agar is melted it is cooled and kept fluid by placing the tubes in a water-bath at 40° C. Each tube, after the addition of the urine and serum to the fluid agar, is quickly shaken to assure a good admixture, and is then placed in a slanting position to allow the agar to become solid, and thus to form a slant. When the medium in the tubes has solidified the tubes are placed in the incubator for about twenty-four hours to test for contaminations, after which they are ready for use.” THE DETECTION OF TUBERCLE-BACILLI IN SPUTUM. Amann (Centralblatt fur Bakt. und Parasit., Band XVII, No. 15, p. 513) details the methods for the detection of tubercle-bacilli in sputum that 400 he has come to prefer as the outcome of an experience of twelve years. The sputum is first poured into a strong glass cylinder having a capacity of 100 c.cm., and diluted with from two to four volumes of cold distilled water, so that the cylinder is about half filled. Then I c.cm. of chloroform and a small quantity of perfectly clean shot of moderate size are added. The cylinder is tightly closed and actively shaken for several minutes. In this way the sputum is converted into a perfectly homogeneous solution. now further diluted with from four to six volumes of distilled water, and is poured into a specially constructed U-shaped glass cylinder (20 cm. high and 50 mm. in diameter) for the purpose of sedimentation. The caliber of this tube grows progressively smaller, so that it is but 2 mm. at the bottom. To the sputum-solution is added 2 c.cm. carbol-fuchsin solution, and the two are quickly intermixed by gentle shaking. The apparatus is then closed by means of a rubber stopper perforated through the middle, through which passes a hard-rubber or bone tube. The process of sedimentation is permitted to continue for two days, although sometimes twenty-four hours suffice. The sediment is received into a watch-glass or other receptacle, and a portion is used for a study of epithelium, fibres, and the like, while a second portion is used for the study of tubercle-bacilli. The collected sediment is spread in a thin layer upon several glass slides which are dried at the ordinary temperature, when they are fixed either by careful heating or exposure to equal parts of absolute alcohol and ether. The preparation is now stained with carbol-fuchsin (1 gm. fuchsin is well rubbed up with 5 gm. of liquid carbolic acid-80 per cent—and 99 c.cm. of hot distilled water added). Of this solution several drops are placed upon a clean slide and the exposure continued until the fluid has cooled. Decolorization is effected by exposure for from half a minute to one minute to a 20 per cent solution of sulphuric acid saturated with picric acid. The preparation is now washed in water until its acid reaction disappears. It is next treated with a solution of fluorescin 15 gm., crystalized methylene-blue 15 gm., and absolute alcohol 500 c.cm. After the red color has disappeared the preparation is washed with absolute alcohol and then in water. As a counter-stain a diluted watery solution of malachite-green may be employed, to which the preparation is exposed for about a minute, and then washed in water. The slide is now dried and may be studied, or if it is to be preserved, it may be covered with dammar or balsam and a cover-glass.-Abstract in Medical News, June 15th, 1895. PATHOLOGIC DISLOCATION OF THE FIRST CERVICAL VERTEBRA FOLLOWING CARIES. Lichty (Medical News, June 29, 1895) reports a case presenting the following conditions on autopsy: Male, white, aged 27 years. The body was fairly well nourished; the muscles of the arms and legs were not well developed, and the deltoid muscles were especially atrophied; the muscles of the neck were very well developed and the sterno-cleido-mastoid stood. out prominently. No scars were found on the scalp, and the calvarium was free from any signs of old fracture. The dura was thickened throughout, and hard 401 and resistant upon cutting, and at various points the meninges were closely adherent to the brain substance. At the base of the brain and anterior to the pons there was an extensive external purulent meningitis. In both fissures of Sylvius the meninges were closely adherent throughout. The brain substance was normal in every respect. The lateral ventricles were filled with a cloudy fluid. Upon examining the base of the skull the odontoid process was seen projecting through the foramen magnum. Flaky pus welled up from the spinal canal. The transverse ligament was entirely absent and the odontoid process pinned the cord back against the posterior edge of the foramen magnum. The first cervical vertebra seemed almost entirely destroyed by the carious process, and what was remaining had been displaced forward. The cord was flattened out, having only about one-half its normal antero-posterior diameter. The membranes of the cord were intact. No tubercle bacilli could be demonstrated in the pus. The pathologic diagnosis was cervical Pott's disease, involving the first and second vertebræ, with a purulent external pachymeningitis. There is a history in the case of a head injury due to falling down a flight of stone steps, at the age of three years, followed immediately by a convulsion, and afterwards by severe headaches. At the age of twelve years he began to have epileptiform convulsions, which continued until he was nineteen years old, when he ceased to have convulsions, but began to suffer from stiffness and neuralgic pain of the neck. This latter continued to increase, and some time prior to death he developed stiffness of jaw, inability to voluntarily move the head and masticate his food, and on the third day before death he became weak and paralyzed all over, which latter condition gradually increased until paralysis of respiration ensued. Argon, the New Element of the Air.-The following is a synopsis of the lecture delivered by Professor Hinrichs, before the Alumni Association of the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, on March 29, 1895: The recent publications of Lord Raleign and Professor Ramsey of the experimental data which establish the existence of the new element, argon, in the air, were exemplified by experimental demonstrations. The removal of oxygen from the air, and the absorption of the remaining nitrogen by red hot magnesium was shown, and the residual air, rich in argon, was collected over mercury in an improvised mercurial air pump. The absorption of the nitrogen having proceeded at the rate of about one cubic centimeter a minute when most rapid, the complete removal of the nitrogen is very tedious and laborious. The famous experiment of Cavendish, in which nitric acid is produced by a shower of electric sparks passing through atmospheric air, was also exhibited in a new form, specially devised for this lecture. It was pointed out that Cavendish, fully a century ago, had in his hands a small amount of this new element, argon, as the final residual of air from this experiment, and amounting to about one per cent of the air taken. This agrees with the determinations of the recent discoverers of argon. The fact that these important discoveries had all been made by English scientists, was used by the lecturer to repel the arrogant assertions made in a recent publication of one of the most noted new scientific establishments of the German Empire. 402 The lecturer declared that this work of the English scientists again showed that the country which has produced Newton, the greatest scientist of modern times, is today, second to no other in scientific work of fundamental importance, though the bulk of scientific publications is much greater in Germany. Dr. Hinrichs, as a native of Germany, expresses his regrets that German chemistry today was less thorough than formerly, and mainly industrial; and as an instance he cited the fact, that German chemists, without exception, had adopted the errsneous atomic weights of Stas, and accordingly falsified their own analysis in the reduc The deplorable fact that at many of our colleges even sophomores are wasting their time on special studies, when they ought to lay a broad and deep foundation, was by Dr. Hinrichs, also ascribed to the imitation of the extreme specialization in German schools which had already been condemned by the eminent chemist, Colbe, of Leipzig, a quarter of a century ago. In conclusion, the lecturer showed teat this new element, argon, seems to be the first one of a new genus, for which he had published the general formula as far back as 1874, and that Lord Raleigh found the atomic weight of nitrogen, freed from argon, to be fourteen, thus confirming the results of Dr. Hinrichs in his recent work, and disaproving the value of Stas, and thereby adding another important confirmation to the doctrine of the unity of matter.-Meyer Bros. Druggist. A New Introducor and Extractor for Intubating the Larynx. - This introducor and extractor for intubating the larynx has been devised by me with a view to simplify the ingenious, but somewhat complicated and cumbersome apparatus at the present time in use. The introducor consists of a metallic ring, fitting closely the end of the index finger. Underneath the ring the obturator, which is made of flexible steel, is attached by means of a spring catch. The head of the tube is supplied with a wire rim, as shown 403 in the appended cut. The string drawn through the wire rim and passing to the right of the index finger, and being held by the third and fourth fingers against the palm of the hand, keeps the tube attached to the obturator. By releasing the string after accomplished intubation, the obturator need only be lifted out of the tube and the operation is completed. The removal of the tube is accomplished by the extractor, well shown in the cut, and which consists of a metallic ring with a small hook attachment. Lift G. TIEMANN & CO. MY. ing the epiglottis, the wire rim can be easily felt by the tip of the finger, which has been left free for the purpose of sensation. A slight pass of the finger, and the hook is caught into the wire rim, and the tube is removed. The advantages claimed for this introducor and extractor are their simplicity, and hence smaller cost and lesser liability of getting out of order. The tube being attached to the end of the index finger is directly under the sensation of touch, and hence can be manipulated with greater delicacy and the direction of its course can be better determined according to necessity. The obturator has been made flexible for the purpose of avoiding its catching and extracting the tube after it is once well in the larynx, as has frequently happened to beginners. After the tube is in the larynx, the simple release of the string disattaches the obturator from the tube and thus a few seconds of valuable time are saved, that otherwise would be spent in pushing the tube off the obturator. The extractor is, above all, harmless. After a few failures no harm has been done, which is more than can be said of the old instrument, where failure must needs be accompanied by trauma to the parts. The wire rim will in no way interfere with the function of the tube, nor in swallowing, as has been demonstrated in one case in which the instrument has been in use. Both the introduction and extraction were accomplished without any difficulty, although at the time the mechanical details were not yet completed. The child got well and apparently recovered its voice sooner than I have been accustomed to see it heretofore. Thanks are due to Mr. L. Pfarre and Mr. F. A. Stohlman, of the firm of Tiemann & Company, for the splendid mechanical details and fine. execution of this apparatus. N. B.-Since giving this out for publication several important modifications and improvements have G.TIEMANN&co |