Weekly Commercial Herald

Hydrophobic Germs.

NEW YORK, Dec. 29.—Several doctors of this city and Newark to-night operated on a rabid dog for the purpose of securing the saliva and the spinal marrow for the propagation of hydrophobic germs on the Pasteur system. They were supplied with a number of Koch's tubes, containing a medium in which the germs will grow. The medium consists of Japanese vegetable gelatine. The germs will breed in this in a few days. The tubes were especially prepared for this purpose, being stopped with sterilized cotton, and being one-third full of the gelatine. The dog, a magnificent lemon and-white greyhound, was laid upon a table. Dr. Nelson then heated a platinum needle in a spirit lamp, and, having gathered some of the saliva from the teeth of the dog, as soon as the needle was cold held the tube in his left hand, with the mouth inclined toward the table, and, quickly removing the stopper, thrust the needle up into the gelatine; then, having withdrawn the needle, he closed the tube, marked it, and laid it aside. Dr. Runge then dissected the dog. He opened a gland, from which Dr. Nelson extracted some saliva, which he enclosed in a vial previously sterilized with bichloride of mercury. When the spinal cord was laid bare, Dr. Nelson secured several small portions, which he quickly transferred to Koch's tubes. Dr. O'Gorman, who watched the operation, said it was the first time that the virus of a rabid dog had been secured for the culture of germs in this country. He had no doubt of the success of the experiment. Dr. Runge has in his possession four cats that were bitten by the greyhound.