Handbook of bacteriological diagnosis for practitioners : including instructions for the clinical examination of the blood / by W. d'Este Emery.

  • Emery, Walter d'Este, 1870-1923.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Handbook of bacteriological diagnosis for practitioners : including instructions for the clinical examination of the blood / by W. d'Este Emery. 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.

    205/258 (page 183)
    logical diagnosis. The presence of bacteria in the tissues can usually be demonstrated by the simple processes of smearing the cut surfaces of tissues on clean slides or cover-glasses, and treating the films thus obtained by the fixing and staining methods previously described. If, for instance, we have to search for tubercle bacilli in tuberculous glands it is usually sufficient to smear the cut surfaces of the glands on a slide, dry, fix by heat, and stain in the same way as sputum is stained for the tubercle bacillus. If anthrax bacilli were being looked for in the liver or other organ, removed post-mortem, the same method of pro- cedure would be adopted, except that Gram's method of staining would be used. So also for typhoid bacilli in the spleen, where the film would be stained with a simple stain such as thionin or Loffler's methylene blue. It seems advisable, however, to give a short general account of the processes involved in section cutting, for they are by no means difficult, and do not require very expensive apparatus. Further, the same methods of section cutting are used for investigating the nature of tumours, &c., ^nd this is done already by many practi- tioners and should be done by still more. Slices of organs or tissues which are to be cut have first to be fixed. The process of fixation consists essen- tially in the application of some agent which brings about coagulation of the component proteids with as little distortion of the morphological elements as pos- sible ; if this step were not carried out the subsequent processes would be liable to cause alterations in the shape, size, and appearance of the cells and fibres. There are two chief methods or fixation, that involving the use of chemical substances, and that involving the use of heat. The processes which are used in fixing the