Category: P

Treatment of sputum or other biological material with 4 per cent sodium hydroxide to kill bacteria other than mycobacteria. After 20-30 minutes’ exposure the material is centrifuged, neutralized, smeared and planted on egg or other media adapted to the growth of mycobacteria, especially tuberculosis.  

Flat circular plates 214-6 inches in diameter with a wall of 3/8 inch, made in pairs, one being slightly greater in size and forming a lid for the smaller plate, into which melted culture medium is poured and allowed to set. Petri dishes may be of glass (sterilized by heat) or transparent plastic material (sterilized…

Wire the terminal inch of which is bent at an angle, and carries the cotton-wool swab. Used for swabbing the nasopharyngeal space—in whooping cough, and for the detection of carriers of the meningococcus.  

Culture medium (and base for addition of fermentable carbohydrates) consisting of peptone, sodium chloride and water. Agar may be added.  

Microaerophilic Gram-positive coccus (cultivable in acid media fortified with prescribed nutritional elements) associated with beer spoilage at the wort stage.  

Ungraduated pipettes for use with rubber teats, made by drawing out the middle area of heated glass tubing into a capillary which is cut to provide two pipettes. For the use of Pasteur pipettes for quantitative measurement.  

Species capable of growth on nutrient agar, non-haemolytic on blood agar; causes haemorrhagic septicaemia and other infections in a variety of birds and animals. Can infect man. A species found in the oral cavities of cats, dogs, and other animals. It may be transmitted to humans by animal bites, and may cause cellulitis, abscesses, osteomyelitis,…

Much as Pasteurella multocida, but haemolytic. Infects cattle and sheep.  

Method for elementary bodies, alcohol fixed material being treated with Loeffler’s flagella mordant, followed by dilute carbol-fuchsin. The slide is examined by critical high power microscopy.  

A bacterium the colonies of which develop only a little colour. Term particularly used among the mycobacteria.