The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1911-07-12
HATCH GERMS
IN LABORATORY
Visit to City Bacteriologist
Teaches How Typhoid Gull
lures Are Made
COLON BACILLI STILL
FOUND IN CITY WATER
Germs Grow in Beef Soup and
Other Media Kept at Body Heat
in lncubators for From Is to
"a Hours

With test tubes. microscope. incu-
bators and other mysterious appIi-
ances about, the small room adioin-
ing TT netreaus office in the Sloan
building, recently pressed into SER
vice by the health department. be-
gins TO take on a decidedly business
like appearance. Here Miss Alice
Montgomery city bacteriologist, pre-
sides over the desttuics of germs af
various sorts, putting the water and
milk through rigid tests and max
ing cultures for the city physicians
for diphtheria, scarlet fever tuber-
culosis or other diseases.
City Water Tests
So far the chief work of the labor
atory has been with water and milk.
Daily tests of the city water are
made. the water being taken from
the same place each time in the
mains. The water is still showing,
says Miss Montgomery. the colon
bacill The colon bacilli is the germ
which is always found when the ty-
phoid germ Is found, though the ty-
phoid is not necessarily present
where the colon is found. The cotton
bacillus does. however. always indi
cate pollution of the water
1t is very frequently to be met
with in the milk tests, Miss Mont
gomery says; it being almost impos-
sible to find milk without it, except
when the milk has been pasteurtzed.
How Cultures are Made
small amount of the water, as it
comes from the mains, is takeu di-
Iluted in some medium and then a
small amount Of that applied to an
other medium in sterilZed glass
plates and placed in the incubator to
grow. The glass receptaCles are kept
in the incubator, at body heat, 9S
degrees Fahrenheit. for from eigh-
teen to twcnty-four hours. The me-
dunn in which the water is incubated
is blue and the colon bacilh, if pres
ent in numbers, form an acid which
turns the blue red. II the little
plates at this end of the incubation
period come out quite rcd, the colon
is numerous and the water badly
polluted Miss Montgomery said
some f the plates We're quite red
Under the microscope, the colon
bacill shows mp like little short sticks
grouped together.
Under the Microscope
Miss Montgomery did not have
wide variety of germs to be looked
at under the microscope, though she
says she has NC" collection of
plates at home. But she does not
consider the typhoid, or the diphthe-
ria or the tuberculosis bacteria es-
pecially desirable companions to have
lying around. and usually destroys
the plates as soon as she is finished
with thcm. The typhoid she says, in
growing in a culture tube forms a
gas which is quite unmstakahle,
Uses Scientific Terms
A visit to he city laboratory Is
decidedly interesting While Miss
Montgom cry is bound to use, even
in her efforts to explain to the nom
meteorological person, terms and
names which are quite unintelligihle
to the ordinary inquirer, the general
process Of making the tests can be
grasped. one learns that glass is
sterilized in an oven of something
which looks like a little oil stovr;
that liquids are stcrilzed in steam.
One learns that a good many diff
ferent media are used to develop the
bacteria. and that part of the bac-
teriologists work is the preparation
of these media BouilIon made Of
pepton, beer extract and water is a
common preparation. There is also
a sugar bOuillnn, made from the
beef instead of from the extract, and
much fussier to prepare Agar
agar, a gelatinous substance obtained
from sea weeds is another, and there
are plenty more with highly unfa-
miliar names.
Until the arrival Of the regular
germ incubator, a small hfty-egg
Buckeye was used for the Matching,
and is still in commission AZ sup
Elementary hatcher
Miss Montgomery is graduate Of
the University OF Washington. she
specialized in botany and thus he
came interested in the bacterioIosi-
cal work. Her professor was inter-
ested to have her take il up, think
ing it fine field for woman and
one not overcrowded in this part of
the country at any rate. Miss Mont
gomery worked for eighteen months
in the laboratory of tn" state board
Of health, doing much Of the bacte-
biological work under Or. Frick. 1t
was the cutting down of the appro-
priation by the last legislature when
necessitated reducing the force Miss
Montgomery says that she doesn't
think they are doing much laboratory
work now in the state health depart
ment; imagines that there is more
doing along this line now at North
Yakima than there. She has also
taught science and had planned to
accept a high school position this
year when the North Yakima place
was opened to her.
Spralns require careful treatment.
Keep quiet and apply Chamberlain's
Linipent freely. II viii remove the