Tuberculosis and Acute general miliary tuberculosis / by G. Cornet ; edited, with additions by Walter B. James ; authorized translation from the German, under the editorial supervision of Alfred Stengel.

  • Cornet, G. (Georg), 1858-1915.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tuberculosis and Acute general miliary tuberculosis / by G. Cornet ; edited, with additions by Walter B. James ; authorized translation from the German, under the editorial supervision of Alfred Stengel. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    36/840 (page 28)
    CHAPTER II. THE TUBERCLE BACILLUS. A short time after Koch had pubUshed his first observations, Baumgarten affirmed that independently of Koch he had been able to find bacilli identical with those of Koch, by clearing up tuberculous tissue with very dilute potassium or sodium hydrate. He attempted to demonstrate the specific significance of this bacillus in tuberculosis by histological methods. STAINING METHODS. In the living condition, and examined according to Koch's pro- cedure in the hanging drop, the tubercle bacillus is identified as a small, non-motile rod. In order to develop the finer details, espe- cially the relations to its surroundings, it is necessary to stain the organism. The original method of Koch, as above described (page 26), was considerably improved by Ehrlich, and, with certain modi- fications suggested by Weigert and Rindfleisch, still finds wide ap- plication. To prepare Ehrlich's stain, 5 cc. of pure anilin oil are mixed with 100 cc. of distilled water, the mixture well shaken, and then passed through a moist filter. To the clear watery filtrate, a saturated alcoholic solution of methyl violet, or better fuchsin (20 gm. of the stain to 100 or 150 cc. of alcohol), is added drop by drop, until there is a faint opalescence—according to Weigert, 11 cc. of the stain to 100 cc. of the anilin water. The disadvantage connected with Ehrlich's method is that the stain must always be freshly prepared, on account of the instability of the anilin water. This is only very temporarily remedied by the addition of 10 cc. of absolute alcohol. The Ziehl carbol-fuchsin solution marked a very distinct ad- vance, since it kept for practically an indefinite length of time, and so became universally adopted. It is prepared by rubbing up 1 gm. of fuchsin in 10 cc. of absolute alcohol, and then adding this mixture to 100 cc. of a 5 per cent, solution of carbolic acid in water. The method was further simplified by Rindfleisch, who reduced the time