Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1894-06-01


\ fine black cat, but greatly at
tenuated, was suffering in the las
stages of tuberculosis or consumption
while in the adjoining cage was ,
tabby that had lost the major portion
OF her glossy coat with a bad cast o
erysipelas. Several Guinea pigs were
undergoing treatment for anthrax Of
malignant pustule, commonly known
as the wool sorter's disease, while 6
former king of the barnyard fine old
rooster, showed evident signs of re
covering from an attack of induced
pneumonia.
While turning to the laboratory t''e
bacteriologist said: at has been by
the most untiring industry and patient
experiment on the lower animals that
the medical science OF to-day is en-.
abled to stand out in such bold relief
against the dark mystery and dense
ignorance surrounding the past
Every year the actual number of fatal
diseases are lessening as the methods
and means of coping with them be-
come, by actual experiment, better
understood" Leading the reporter
again into the laboratory, he said
I will now explain to you some of
the instruments used in our work.
As seon aa We receive the germs of
disease from human being, to be
enabled to study those germs with
some degree of safety to ourselves
as we'll as to get them into proper
shape for microscopic examination, it
is necessary to make a culture. We
breed a number of them from the
original sample in what is called q
culture medium. The culture medium
is preparation made to initiate close
ly the human blood and is composed
Of meat juices and a number OF
chemicals to keep it from spelling by
heat or deteriorating from age, and in
appearance resembles a gelatine or
glue that is neither liquid or a solid.
"The culture medium after it is
made must be entirely free from
germs of any kind, and to attain this
end the media, after being placed in
the culture tubes, as we'll as every
thing used in handling it, are first
thoroughly sterilized by an apparatus
called steam sterilizer. With the
use OF this apparatus the culture
tubes and utensils are subjected to a
live steam bath for one hour each day
for three successive days. They are
then corked with raw cotton that has
been sterilized by dry heat. The
germs are now transferred to the cul.
ture tubes by means OF a platinum
wire which has been sterilized by heat
ing to a white heat over a triple Bum
sen burner.
Almost all germs after being taken
into the system require certain length
of time to incubate or hatch. To
properly study their development and
growth in an artificial medium it is
necessary to surround them with heat
and moisture as nearly resembling the
living tissue of the human body as is
possible. This condition is obtained
by the use of a very delicate and cost
ly apparatus called an incubator, the
cost of which ranges from $50 to $G }.
The incubator will accommodate from
from 250 to 1900 cultures at one time,
and is provided with an ingenious
contrivance called thermostat, which
works automstical and maintains the
heat in tho incubator at the exact
temperature of the human blood fol-
months ut time. Attached to the
incubator is another delicate ap
paratus for keeping an exact record ol
the temperature. 1t cost about $40
is wound up like clock, and is pro
vided with pen, ink and paper, re.
volving on cylinder. This lit:le
instrument after being wound up will
run one week, and accurately record
the temperature for each minute o
time, making the variations to the
tenth of degree. After the bacilli
have become fully developed in the
incubator, preparation is now made
for their further study under the
microscope. The cultures are removed
from the tubes and cut into very thir
slices, and after being colored are
placed on glass slides suitable for in
sertion under the lenses OF the com
pound Microscopes.
"The slicing of the culture into sec
tions of any desired thickness from
one.sixteenth to the one-six-thousand
tn of an inch in thickness is sccomp
lished by another very delicate ant
costly piece of machinery called I
microtome. The almost invisible slice
are now colored a beautiful pink O
purple and mounted on glass slide
ready for the microscope. A portion
of the culture is left in the tube, ant
after being properly labeled is placed OF
q rack, where they are kept for future
inspection or experiment. The slide
are now examined under q series o
microscopes of varying power. tn
cost of which ranges from $40 to $500
and higher for special makes. Th
magnifying power ranges from 2O) t.
1,500 diameters for one set, and from
5000 to 1000 diameters for the NOR
costly" The reporter was shown
number OF slides containing the bacill
of various fatal diseases magnified u
to 1000 times their actual size. Th
bacilli are 80 diminutive as to be en
tirely invisible to the naked eye, an
he was assured that 100000 of then
could be placed in . solid bunch OF
the pupil of the eye without diminish
ing the sight or actually being see
| ,,,laaa than mora n ~; 6 a; oll,, noloeed