The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1918-01-04


Medium to BE Used In Ralsln
The laboratory at Uncle Sans Arm!
4 Medical school in Washington, work
ing at top speed, has prepared nnt
shipped enough typhoid and paratyp
phold vaccine TO inoculate every maj
In the army against these diseases ant
in addition 1t has made all the vac
cines used by the navy since April
| 1917. At the time the first contingentS
] of the National army were being mo
bilized in the various cantOnments, the
army school was turning out 300(
quarts OF typhoid vaccine month
The cost Of this monthly output in ma
/ terial alone, not to mention labor
equipment and overhead expense, was
| $150000. It's commercial value was
five. or six times that amount.
Throughout the process of making
the vaccine is closely guarded against
contamination, 1t is then stored in
sealed vessels in locked refrigerators
to which only the two officers in
charge ve'keys; and none of these
vessels is ever moved except In the
company Of one of these two officers
Col. Eugene II. Whitmore, In charge
of the laboratory, and his assistant,
Maj. G. G.. Snow. In more than six
months of large-scale production not
n trace has been found of any contain
inatlOn.
The United States army uses the
Rawlings" strain of the typhoid bacil-
lus, isolated by the British army from
a case of typhoid at Netley, England,
in 1900. The stock from which the
typhoid vaccine is made is composed
of lineal descendants of these germs
isolated II years ago and propagated
In artificial media ever since. The par
atyphOid vaccines are a combination
of four strains, two American and two
British.
The Process of Cultivation.
First the "stock cultures" from
which the bacilli for the vaccine are
to be propagated, are tested. If, for
example, typhoid vaccine is to be
made, germs are taken from the stock,
allowed to propagate, and tested by
several methods to determine, first.
whether they are pure strain Of ty-
phoid bacillus and nothing else, and,
second, that they are affected in the
desired way by blood previously in
oculated against typhoid, showing that
this particular strain Of typhoid bacil-
lus is neither too strong nor too weak.
The next steps in the process, after
determination that the stock cultures
are right, is propagation. First few
colonies are started by swabbing over
with stock bacilli the surface Of
agar Japanese seaweed), which is
used as the cult we medium. After
incubation the colonies which ap-
pear are washed off with a liquid
culture medium called "broth." This
broth is used for swabbing the
agar-agar surfaces in large number
of TASKS, the desired quantity Of ha-
cilli for vaccine being obtained by in
cubating the cultures in these TASKS.
Every Care Against Contamination.
This swabbing operation is done in
rooms whose walls are washed down
with antiseptic each morning, with
doors and windows tightly closed, and
m a very moist atmosphere of high
temperature. 1t was often above 100
degrees T. in these rooms last summer,
and is known to have reached 124 de-
grees on one occasion. The workers
wear steriIized coats and rubber
gloves, rarely speak, make as few and
as slow movements as possible, so that
there will be little air circulation, and
In every way minimize the possibilities
Of contamination.
After the TASKS swabbed with
''broth" have incubated, the billions of
bacteria in each are washed off with
salt solution and this emulsion heat
ed to So degrees G. (1274 degrees F).
This kills large number of the bacilli.
One-fourth Of 1 per cent of tricresol,
u coal-tar product, is added, which
kills all the rest of them and also acts
as q preservatlve.
Test Cultures Made.
After the emulsion of broth and ba-
cilli has been heated test culture
is made to see that it is still uncon-
taminato9. After the tricresol has
been added, other test cultures are
made, both in air and in a vacuum, to
determine whether incubation will dis
close any communicating microorgan-
isms. Certain dangerous germs will
not incubate if exposed to the air.)
This is done in spite Of the fact that
there are few bacteria, either harmless
or Injurious, which the tricresol will
not l7il'