THE ELEMENTS

OF

BACTERIOLOGICAL TECHNIQUE

A LABORATORY GUIDE FOR MEDICAL, DENTAL, AND TECHNICAL STUDENTS

BY

J. W. H. EYRE, M.D., M.S., F.R.S. (Edin.)

Director of the Bacteriological Department of Guy's Hospital, London, and Lecturer on Bacteriology in the Medical and Dental Schools; formerly Lecturer on Bacteriology at Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, and Bacteriologist to Charing Cross Hospital; sometime Hunterian Professor, Royal College of Surgeons, England

SECOND EDITION REWRITTEN AND ENLARGED

PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON
W. B. SAUNDERS COMPANY
1913

Copyright, 1902, by W. B. Saunders and Company Revised, entirely
reset, reprinted, and recopyrighted July, 1913

Copyright, 1913, by W. B. Saunders Company

Registered at Stationers' Hall, London, England

PRINTED IN AMERICA

PRESS OF
W. B. SAUNDERS COMPANY
PHILADELPHIA

TO THE MEMORY OF

JOHN WICHENFORD WASHBOURN, C.M.G., M.D., F.R.C.P.

Physician to Guy's Hospital and Lecturer on Bacteriology in the
Medical School, and Physician to the London Fever Hospital

MY TEACHER, FRIEND, AND CO-WORKER

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

Bacteriology is essentially a practical study, and even the elements of its technique can only be taught by personal instruction in the laboratory. This is a self-evident proposition that needs no emphasis, yet I venture to believe that the former collection of tried and proved methods has already been of some utility, not only to the student in the absence of his teacher, but also to isolated workers in laboratories far removed from centres of instruction, reminding them of forgotten details in methods already acquired. If this assumption is based on fact no further apology is needed for the present revised edition in which the changes are chiefly in the nature of additions—rendered necessary by the introduction of new methods during recent years.

I take this opportunity of expressing my deep sense of obligation to my confrère in the Physiological Department of our medical school—Mr. J. H. Ryffel, B. C., B. Sc.—who has revised those pages dealing with the analysis of the metabolic products of bacterial life; to successive colleagues in the Bacteriological Department of Guy's Hospital, for their ready co-operation in working out or in testing new methods; and finally to my Chief Laboratory Assistant, Mr. J. C. Turner whose assistance and experience have been of the utmost value to me in the preparation of this volume. I have also to thank Mrs. Constant Ponder for many of the new line drawings and for redrawing a number of the original cuts.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

In the following pages I have endeavoured to arrange briefly and concisely the various methods at present in use for the study of bacteria, and the elucidation of such points in their life-histories as are debatable or still undetermined.

Of these methods, some are new, others are not; but all are reliable, only such having been included as are capable of giving satisfactory results even in the hands of beginners. In fact, the bulk of the matter is simply an elaboration of the typewritten notes distributed to some of my laboratory classes in practical and applied bacteriology; consequently an attempt has been made to present the elements of bacteriological technique in their logical sequence.

I make no apology for the space devoted to illustrations, nearly all of which have been prepared especially for this volume; for a picture, if good, possesses a higher educational value and conveys a more accurate impression than a page of print; and even sketches of apparatus serve a distinct purpose in suggesting to the student those alterations and modifications which may be rendered necessary or advisable by the character of his laboratory equipment.

The excellent and appropriate terminology introduced by Chester in his recent work on "Determinative Bacteriology" I have adopted in its entirety, for I consider it only needs to be used to convince one of its extreme utility, whilst its inclusion in an elementary manual is calculated to induce in the student habits of accurate observation and concise description.

With the exception of Section XVII—"Outlines for the Study of Pathogenic Bacteria"—introduced with the idea of completing the volume from the point of view of the medical and dental student, the work has been arranged to allow of its use as a laboratory guide by the technical student generally, whether of brewing, dairying, or agriculture.

So alive am I to its many inperfections that it appears almost superfluous to state that the book is in no sense intended as a rival to the many and excellent manuals of bacteriology at present in use, but aims only at supplementing the usually scanty details of technique, and at instructing the student how to fit up and adapt apparatus for his daily work, and how to carry out thoroughly and systematically the various bacterioscopical analyses that are daily demanded of the bacteriologist by the hygienist.

Finally, it is with much pleasure that I acknowledge the valuable assistance received from my late assistant, Mr. J. B. Gall, A. I. C., in the preparation of the section dealing with the chemical products of bacterial life, and which has been based upon the work of Lehmann.

CONTENTS

Page

I. Laboratory Regulations 1


II. Glass Apparatus in Common Use 3

The Selection, Preparation, and Care of
Glassware, 8—Cleaning of Glass
Apparatus, 18—Plugging Test-tubes and
Flasks, 24.


III. Methods of Sterilisation 26

Sterilising Agents,