The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-02-18
LII Saving WORK
OF DR.. LEVY
City l5actcriologist Gives Eek
cccdingly Interesting
Interview.
EXPERIMENTS IN EACH CASE
Or. Levy Makes The Scientific
Procedure Plain With Separate
Tests Before Reporter.

~ .-----------.--.-.---- t.5. SIS isa
Richmond has made no step forward
IN u number{of years that is 40 pregnant.
with possibilities OF good for It's citizens
ss the establishment Of u department OF
bacteriology. This long needed reform
IS the direct outcome OF tho work Of
1or. y. q. Williams, member OF the
Council.
1t will b. hard to Imagine n more
interesting visit than one 10 DIR, Ernest
G. I.eyy's laboratory, OH the fourth floor
OF inc City Hall, Here, with simple loot-
Ihg,lDu absolutely certain apparatus. the
doctor runs to death tho bacilli of dph.
liberia, tuberculosis and typhoid fever. A
Iimes-Dlspatch reporter called on Dir.
Levy and asked him to give some descrip-
ton of the work lie was trying to do, and
the use he was making Of his equipment.
The doctor said:
In hitting up ths laboratory have
been gnided by what is done In other
cities where | have had the opportunity
OF seeing what Is done. The Bonrd OF
Health allowed me to follow out my own
ideas In the equipment and In the ron-
tine of this office. Although the appro-
priation Is Very small. still, by moving
the laboratory which had already fixed
up at the old ptimp-nouse for the water
department and by combining the two
here at the City Hall | have avoided
the duplication OF apparatus. and have
thus been enabled to get fairly salts
factory equipment. After n while when
the Importance and usefulness of this
laboratory shall have been convincingly
shown, hope we, will be able to get
81 more liberal appropriation and increase
the usefulness OF this department in pro-
portion
II suppose the method OF making a
diagnosis by the aid OF bacteriology con-
sistS in finding the germs Of the disease
and examining them under the micro
scope said the reporter.
.Tifc method is seldom the same in any
two diseases" replied the doctor. For
instance, in diphthcria and consumption
we look for the bacteria which cause
these disease. while In examining the
blood for making n diagnosis of typhoid
fever, we do not find the bacteria of this
disease at all. But Will show you Just
whnt is done in each Of these three dis
eases.
Makes An Experiment.
When II doctor suspects n case of
having tuberculosis Consumption, he
gets one OF these outfits from a culture
station and hns the patient cxpectoritc
into this bottle. Here Is one OF the
bottles which came in this morning from
such a case. and will now examine it,
Tic doctor spread some Of the sputum
on a thin slip of glass, let 1t dry COM
pIetely. and then passed 1t three times
through the flame of Il burner which
stood ON the table Next a few drops Of
Z. deep red liquid were poured on the
spread and the glass was held over the
flame until steam began to rise. This
was repcated several times. The glass
was then wasSed IN stream OF water.
Now" said tile bacterielogist exhib-
Ting the result to the reporter you
see that everything which have
spread ON this glass is stained a deep
red-tlc germs of every kind which may
he present. whether they are tubercic
iyacilli or not. The next step is to take the
color out OF everything except the tubcrcla
aaciili. will do this by passing this
slide through some diluted nitric acid"
he said. suiting the action to the word,
and you see that all the color seems
to have been taken out of 1t, but II any
germs OF consumption are present they
will have retained the red color. Next
pour on some of this blue color. and that
stains everything else except the germs
of tuberculosis. which hold on to the red
color. This is now washed again and
is ready for examination. Let us look
al the specimen have just prepared"
After the doctor has adjusted the mi
croscopcf the reporter was Invited to
look into IL.
.Yon will see. as soon as you have
become accustomed to looking through
the microscope that nearly everything
I'm this case looks blue, but notice care
fully directly in the center of the field.
DO you see those two little red lines?
Well. they are tuberclc baccli. the
germs OF consumption, and this exa,nl-
nation establishes absolutely beyond
question, that the patient from whom
this spntum came is suffering from con-
sumption"
Save Many Lives.
"And So rejoined the reporter, those
little red lines mean that this person is
doomed to die of consumption
Not so fast" replied the doctor. ut
is just here that we hope to accomplish