THE RESISTANCE TO PHENOL OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS

Abstract

METHODS of disinfectant testing have been the subject of considerable discussion during the past 15 to 20 years. Criticisms of current methods, with suggestions and modifications for supposed improvements, have marked the outstanding steps in the history of this phase of bacteriology. Rideal and Walker' published a very simple method of comparing the germicidal efficiency of disinfectants against B. typhosus, using pure phenol as the standard. The Lancet Commission,2 recognizing certain deficiencies of the method, modified this test, and at the same time added to the method in such a way as to make it more involved and more cumbersome. The Hygienic Laboratory Method devised by Anderson and McClintic3 made further modifications of the Lancet Method; and finally the Disinfectant Standardization Committee of the Laboratory Section of the American Public Health Association4 revised the Hygienic Laboratory Method, in an attempt to increase its accuracy. Throughout these years of study of this subject, only one idea seems to have been apparent in the improvements made in methods, and that was increasing the uniformity of the original scheme. In other words, the history of disinfectant testing is one in which modifications of previous methods for the purpose of securing greater uniformity has been the primary object. Although we naturally desire accuracy in all our methods, it seems that efforts in