The essentials of practical bacteriology : an elementary laboratory book for students and practitioners / by H. J. Curtis.

  • Curtis, Henry J.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The essentials of practical bacteriology : an elementary laboratory book for students and practitioners / by H. J. Curtis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    161/314 (page 143)
    UEINAKY TUBERCULOSIS The section should, therefore, be first examined under the two- third inch objective for giant-cells, with peripherally placed nuclei. If these are present, tubercle bacilh are carefully sought for with the oil-immersions lens, within and around the giant-cells. In the absence of these large cells, or if no bacilh have been found in them, prolonged examination should be made of the aggregations of smaller round cells, resembling granulomatous tissue, present in the section. Such tissue may be really teeming with tubercle bacilh, even m the entu:e absence of giant-cells, as in a case of tuberculous meningitis examined by the author. Tuberculous milk, and urine,—in cases of supposed tuberculosis of the iirinary tract generally,—are examined in exactly the same way as sputum, after centrifugaHsing them by means of one of the machines figured on pp. 131-2. The milk, or urine, is placed in the glass tubes provided, these having been previously steriUsed wijth every precaution. The method recommended is to clean away obvious dirt with a test-tube brush, then soak the tube for at least ten minutes in concentrated sulphuric, or nitric acid; the acid is poured off and the tube rinsed in tap-water, then in distilled water, and finally in rectified spirit. This is allowed to drain away, and the tube is plugged with a sterile rubber stopper. No more than an inch, or an inch and a quarter, of fluid is put in the tube, as when placed in the machine it occupies nearly a horizontal position. The older pattern of centrifugal machine (fig. 67) is worked by hand, but it may be adapted to a water-motor, which is a much more convenient method. All milk, &c. must be centrifvigalised before a negative decision is come to as to the presence of tubercle bacilli; even a repeated examination may sometimes fail to reveal their presence, which can then only be ascertained positively by inoculating susceptible animals, such as the guinea-pig. The carbolic acid method (p. 131), which has been employed successfully for the detection of tubercle bacilli in watery sputum, might, in an emergency, also be tried for urine, &c., should the centrifugal machine not be available. Certain precautions should always be adopted in thus investi- gating cases of urinary tuberculosis. The urine should be passed straight into a carefully sterilised bottle fitted with a new cork, either through a sterile glass funnel, or drawn off with a pre- viously boiled Jacques's catheter. A glass catheter may be used in the case of women. The orifice of the urethra and the adjacent parts should first be carefully cleansed. These precautions are