Abstract
The need for a method capable of evaluating germicides for chemotherapeutic use is universally recognized. Obviously, the first requirement is that the method should simulate as nearly as possible the conditions met in the animal body. In addition it should be relatively simple and should yield information regarding the action of the test substance on bacteria, and on animal tissues, in terms which would permit a direct comparison of the respective effects. The method of Lambert, 1 employed more recently by Salle, 2 does not seem to fulfill these requirements, since the parasitotropic and organotropic properties of the disinfectant are tested under profoundly different conditions. Moreover, it is based on a tissue-culture technic which is time consuming and laborious.
The manometric method proposed here has proved simple, rapid, and remarkably flexible. It permits the conditions of testing to be modified at will, and at the same time allows wide latitude in the choice of animal and bacterial test-subjects. Our experience with it has been limited so far to comparison of the effect of certain disinfectants on the adult mouse's liver, and on suspensions of Bacterium coli to which comparable amounts of protein in the form of horse serum were added. The depressant effect on the rate of oxygen-consumption in glucose-succinate buffer was taken as a measure of destructive action in either case.
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