Author: Glossary

Picture of the nutritional needs of a bacterium or fungus. Washed suspensions of a culture are added to cooling basal synthetic agar medium and plates poured. On the set plates discs of filter paper of 5 mm diameter are placed, and each receives a loopful of solution of different carbohydrate, vitamin or amino acid. Growth…

Bacteria able to utilize carbon dioxide as a source of carbon. Synonym for lithotrophs, under which further details are given.  

Tendency for a suspension of bacteria to agglutinate in saline, before antiserum is added; usually connected with R phase variation. Sometimes termed salt sensitivity.  

Precipitin test for the presence of anthrax infection in tissue. A thermoprecipitation test for anthrax; used for detection of anthrax bacilli. Also called Ascoli’s test.  

Test of the ability of growing mycobacteria to split ester sulphates—a property of many mycobacteria but not of Myco. tuberculosis. Dipotassium phenolphthalein sulphate in Dubos Tween medium is inoculated and incubated for a time adequate for good growth of the strain being tested. On alkalizing the medium, free phenolphthalein (positive result) is shown by red…

Localized hypersensitivity reaction causing acute inflammation and possibly necrosis. Discussed further under the heading of hypersensitivity.  

Culture medium for the selective growth and identification of cholera vibrios; it comprises fermentable carbohydrates (glucose and dextrin) in a nutrient agar base with indicator of basic fuchsin, the reaction being very alkaline as with other vibrio media.  

Group of pathogenic enterobacteria with serological affinities with the salmonellae, but malonate and ONPG (o-nitrophenyl-β-D-galact- opyranoside)-positive and slow liquefiers of gelatin.  

Sera prepared by the inoculation of animals with increasing doses of given antigens of bacterial, viral or fungal type, the antibody- containing serum thus generated being used for the treatment of disease, or more often for the identification of micro-organisms by agglutination or similar tests.  

Indicator of pH change in bacteriological carbohydrate media, consisting of alcoholic solution of acid fuchsin-colourless pink in acid and straw coloured in alkaline solution.