Abstract
Five hundred and twenty-seven parallel attempts were made to recover the Mycobacterium tuberculosis from various materials taken from lesions suspected of being tuberculous, using guinea pig inoculation and Corper's gentian violet-glycerol-water-potato slants.
The material for seeding on the medium was at first treated with 6% sulphuric acid and later with 5% oxalic acid when Corper reported more favorable results with the latter method. The treatment in either instance was for 30 minutes at 37°C. Cultures were incubated for 12 weeks, and guinea pigs were killed in 6 weeks if they had not already died. Failure to complete the guinea pig tests was due almost entirely to death by secondary infection before tuberculous lesions had opportunity to develop. Failure to complete the culture tests was divided between loss by breakage in the centrifugalization, overgrowth by fungi or spore forming organisms, each 8 times, and 7 instances in which the material was treated for a longer period of time than that recommended and hence the negative results were discarded.
It is concluded that, from the standpoint of a diagnosis of tuberculosis, the guinea pig method surpasses the culture as a routine procedure.
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