Remarks on a new method (interlamellar films) of studying the development of micro-organisms and the mutability of their characters and properties / by Sheridan Délepine.

  • Delépine, Sheridan, 1855-1921.
Date:
[1891]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on a new method (interlamellar films) of studying the development of micro-organisms and the mutability of their characters and properties / by Sheridan Délepine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    stage are or are not modified by external circumstances. I had already attempted to carry out this plan by means of a dilution method, such as that used by Brefeld and others since, early in 1881, when working at the organisms of suppurating mucous membranes, a work which I gave up owing to the failure of the methods I was using then, and the special difficulties connected with the subject. I was, however, already then able to satisfy myself that phenomena analogous to those of karyokinesis were of constant occur- rence in multiplying bacteria, and gave rise to many appearances which have been observed by others, though not explained fully yet. About the middle of last year, whilst studying the development of certain pathogenic moulds and other para- sites, I felt again the need of following closely the develop- ment of single organisms. I failed by plate and drop cul- tivations to obtain the results I wanted, partly owing to the effects of liquefaction of certain media or of the mobility of others, partly also owing to the form assumed by drops. I was then led to adopt a new mode of cultivation which, although not perfect in many of its details, has yielded results which so far have been satisfactory, and some of which have been exhibited this year at a meeting of the Pathological Society (May 5th). The principle of the method is to enclose a thin layer of the nutrient medium between two parallel plates, so as to force the organism to grow in definite directions. Owing to the effects of capil- larity the most fluid nutrient media become, so to speak, fixed, provided evaporation be prevented, and they become as available as the solidified ones. The method can, of course, be varied in many ways ; but one of the simplest plans, and one of those which I have used with satisfactory results, is the following. At each end of a glass slide (liin. by 3 in ) a narrow slip of glass is fixed (A A). This, as will be seen later on, is to act as a support. (The surface of the slide on which these slips are fixed will be called the npper