Glass Funnel Research Articles

Roentgen examination of the colon.

The x-ray examination of the colon dates back to the previous century and to the earliest days of radiology, but it did not become a major clinical tool until the enema with opaque material displaced the oral administration of bismuth in 1911.1Barium sulfate supplanted bismuth salts a few years later. In this examination, as in so many others, the competence and diligence of the examiner are vastly more important than the precise nature of the techniques he employs, and a simple mixture of barium and water poured through a glass funnel under the supervision of a Harry Weber2is superior to a homogenized gum suspension introduced through a four-way valve by a novice, particularly if that novice is bored and overworked. But, while it is true that a master craftsman using the simplest tools can do superlative work, it is true also that even the expert's output

THE ACTION OF WIND IN THE DISPERSAL OF SPORES FROM CUP-SHAPED PLANT STRUCTURES

Observation of Lycopodium spores in glass vessels of various sizes and shapes subjected to winds ranging from 0.6 to 7.1 meters per second showed that spores are blown from funnel or egg-cup-shaped vessels more readily than from rectangular vessels or horizontal glass slides. Lycopodium spores were not visibly dispersed from a conical funnel with mouth 4 cm. diameter at wind speeds below 3 meters per second. Soredia of the lichen Cladonia were blown out of their funnel-shaped podetia by winds of 1.5–2 meters per second (3.3–5.3 miles per hr.) although no soredia were blown from a horizontal glass slide at the same wind speeds. When smoke flowed over conical glass funnels in a wind tunnel, two eddy systems were observed. The first took the form of twin vortices with almost vertical axes, one on either side of the median line in the funnel. Each vortex was smallest at the narrowest part of the funnel and widened upwards. The second system was a single permanent elliptical eddy with horizontal axis near the funnel mouth. The upper side of this eddy moved with the wind, the lower against it. Thus, across the median line of the funnel parallel with the air stream but in the opposite direction, there is a flow of air made up of the mingling of the bottom part of the permanent elliptical eddy and the inner edges of the two vortices. It is assumed that, in nature, the two eddy systems created by wind blowing over funnel-shaped plant structures will effectively remove spores and bodies of comparable size. The twin vortices suck spores from the bottom of the funnel and the rotation of the upper elliptical eddy raises the spores along the upwind wall of the funnel and ejects them into the wind above. In a hemispherical plant structure, a single permanent eddy carries spores backwards and up the upwind surface. This kind of dispersal could occur in a variety of plants, including Discomycetes and wind-pollinated plants.

INTERACTION OF CYSTINE AND CASEIN HYDROLYSATE DURING THE AUTOCLAVING OF A MICROBIOLOGICAL ASSAY MEDIUM

In these experiments, the procedures of the Association of Vitamin Chemists (3) have been followed with certain exceptions. Potassium acetate was substituted for sodium acetate, and the concentration was increased to 1.5%. Glucose was supplied at a concentration of 1.2%. The pH of the basal medium was reduced to 6.4 after extensive preliminary experimentation had shown this to be an optimum value for media destined to be autoclaved. The test cultures were incubated at 34? C for 66-72 hours. Acid production was determined by titration with 0.1 ? NaOH at the glass electrode. Sterilization of all solutions by autoclaving was accomplished by heating at 15 lbs. (steam) for 15 minutes. In some cases solutions were sterilized by filtration through Pyrex sintered glass funnels. Each experimental treatment involved two complete sets of niacin dilutions covering the usual range, 0-0.40 microgram of niacin per tube, in increments of 0.05 microgram. The titration values for such duplicated sets were compared in detail with those from a series of standard curves relating niacin dosage to acid production under standardized conditions. For the purpose of the present communication, an index of behavior was 550

A SIMPLE GAS ANALYZER

The gas analysis apparatus described is similar to an enlarged version of Krogh's microapparatus. It consists of a 1 cc. burette calibrated in one-hundredths, enclosed in a water jacket joined above to a glass funnel through a short capillary and below to a mercury reservoir. The absorbing solutions are placed in the glass funnel above, and the gas sample is injected through a needle inserted into a rubber cap on a side arm of the mercury reservoir.The apparatus is simple in design and in use, is easy to clean, and the cost is low. Accuracy is approximately ± 0.5%. A modified analyzer has been used by students with satisfactory results.

A Modification of the U. S. P. Method of Assay for Belladonna Extract

A new technique for the assay of extracted material is proposed which substitutes the use of sintered glass funnels for the Soxhlet apparatus in removing the alkaloids from the extract. This procedure is proposed as it was found that the thimbles used in the assay were adsorbing substances which reacted positively to Valser's Reagent.

A Practical Method for Mass Production and Transfer of Xenopsylla cheopis

In connection with endemic typhus experiments at the Eighth Service Command Laboratory, large numbers of Xenopsylla cheopis were required. This paper describes the method used for the mass production of this flea and their subsequent transfer. Although the is the usual host of X. cheopis, a mouse was found to be much more desirable, because of the lesser quantity of urine excreted into the infested bedding. A white mouse was placed in a standard glass animal jar at room temperature and infested with approximately forty fleas. Three inches of coarse wood shavings were placed in the bottom of the jar for bedding, leaving six inches from the top of the bedding to the lip of the jar, which is a greater distance than the usual vertical jump of X. cheopis. As an added precaution to prevent the escape of fleas, a screen lid covered with muslin was fitted over the jar. Several thousand fleas were reared in such cages; only a very few were observed on the lid, and none were known to have escaped. After the mouse was infested with the fleas, the cage was left undisturbed for approximately one month. During this time the mouse was fed rat checkers and water-soaked carrots daily. No additional water supply for the mouse was required. The flea larvae that were produced fed on the mouse feces and other debris in the jar, and upon reaching maturity they pupated in the bedding. The jar should be kept fairly clean of uneaten portions of carrots and rat checkers since this material often encourages the growth of molds and scavenger mites. When the new generation of fleas begin to emerge, the mouse is transferred to a fresh jar and a new colony started. The bedding from the old jar is transferred to a gallon glass jar with a standard screw-top cover. This transfer is made by pouring the bedding with the fleas, eggs, larvae and pupae, through .a large glass funnel. An excellent funnel for this purpose may be made by cutting the bottom out of a gallon jar, and inverting it over the jar to receive the bedding. These jars are then held together by two screw-type jar lids that have been soldered together at their tops, after the center disk has been removed. The steep glass sides of the funnel make escape of the fleas impossible, and the large openings at each end of the jar enable the bedding to be poured freely and quickly. When all the debris is in the new jar, a round piece of wire screen is placed over it and fastened in place by strips of adhesive tape (Fig. 1). The mesh of the screen is large enough for the fleas to crawl through freely, yet small enough to prevent the bedding from falling through when the jar is inverted. As the fleas emerge from the bedding, they work their way to the surface and perch on the wire screen. When sufficient adults have emerged for use in the laboratory, a quart fruit jar is fastened to the mouth of the gallon jar by means of the

The Value of Artificial Insemination in Poultry Breeding Work

THE recent development of a practical technic of artificial insemination in the chicken by Burrows and Quinn (1939) constitutes a significant contribution to the field of poultry breeding. Due to the excellent description given by these workers the explanation of the methods will not be repeated here. In view of the ease with which this operation may now be carried out it is somewhat surprising that the technic should have remained unknown until so recently.METHODSBurrows and Quinn (1939) have recommended the use of a glass funnel for the collection of the semen and a small hypodermic syringe for insemination of the female. This type of equipment is satisfactory where the handling individually of semen samples from a considerable number of males is not required. Where one is collecting semen from several males on the same day there are problems of semen contamination and convenience of handling several samples .

The Efficiency of the Baermann Apparatus in the Recovery of Larvae of Haemonchus contortus

The apparatus commonly used for the isolation of nematode larvae from soil was first described by Baermann in 1917. It consisted of a glass funnel closed at the bottom by a clamp placed on a piece of rubber tubing attached to the shank, and a sieve of 1 mm mesh wire covered with a piece of coarse cloth. In order to isolate hookworm larvae from fecal cultures or contaminated soil, the funnel was filled nearly to the brim with filtered and sterilized water and the cloth covered screen containing soil or feces with hookworm larvae was placed in the water in the funnel. Samples of varying sizes were withdrawn from the bottom of the funnel at different intervals and examined for larvae. The temperature of the water was not stated. Cort, Ackert, Augustine and Payne (1922) tested the effect of various changes in the operation of the apparatus upon the recovery of hookworm larvae from soil. They found that the water must be at least 10? F warmer than the soil, that a higher percentage of larvae can be isolated from coarse than from finely divided soils, that a slightly higher percentage of larvae can be isolated from moist than from saturated soil, and that while most of the larvae escape from the soil into the water in the first 6 hours, an appreciable number come out later. They also found that under favorable conditions the percentage of larvae recovered was high but variable, the average being about 52 per cent. Stoll (1923) added known numbers of hookworm larvae to 100 gm samples of different types of soil, and used the Baermann apparatus under the conditions standardized by Cort et al (1922) to recover the larvae. He found that about 90 to 95 per cent of the larvae were recovered from humus, consisting mainly of vegetation in various stages of decay, about 80 per cent from sand and loam, and about 33 to 50 per cent from clay. Cort, Stoll, and Grant (1926) used water routinely at 45? C, after having found that of 1900-3750 mixed Ancylostoma and Necator larvae placed on 200 gram lots of moist clay-loam soil, and allowed to remain there

A New Method for Determining Intravenous Pressure.

Intravenous pressure may be estimated clinically either by direct or indirect methods. Direct methods, while more accurate, have certain disadvantages—impossibility of frequent determinations in the same patient, the necessary prerequisite of strict asepsis, the possibility of clot formation in the needle, the difficulty sometimes encountered in puncturing a vein in obese persons, and occasionally apprehension of patients which results in an elevated venous pressure. The indirect or bloodless methods are free from most of these objections but the prevailing procedures have other disadvantages. The most serious objections are that the end-point is not sharp and correct estimations are therefore difficult, that the impossibility of applying such methods to obese persons in whom the veins are not visible above the surface of the skin, and that the end-point must be determined quickly. The method we have developed is based on the principle that the superficial veins on the dorsum of the hand can be visualized easily in a darkened room by placing a small light, such as an ordinary pocket flashlight, against the palmar surface, preferably in the interosseous spaces. By this transillumination the superficial veins appear as black bands which can be obliterated by moderate pressure, thus distinguishing them from shadows cast by ligaments or bone. The mouth of a small glass funnel is covered by thin rubber dam held securely in place by thread tied tightly in a previously prepared groove near the rim. A small hole is then cut in the center of the rubber dam through which the vein to be examined is visualized.

The Technic of Radiography by Gamma Rays

GAMMA rays can be used in place of X-rays as a means of non-destructive testing of castings and welds for internal defects. It was shown by Mehl, Doan, and Barrett1 that radiographs can be taken through ordinary sections of steel in a few hours. using as sources of γ-rays amounts of radium readily available at hospitals in the larger cities. The greater penetrating power of γ-rays compared with X-rays was pointed out, and examples reproduced of radiographs taken through thicknesses well beyond the range of usefulness of X-rays at present available. The apparatus necessary for γ-ray radiography is very simple. A small container of radio-active material is supported rigidly in front of the specimen to be inspected, and X-ray films in suitable holders fastened to the back of the specimens. Figure 1 shows the experimental arrangement used for taking four simultaneous radiographs of specimens built up of plates. A small glass funnel was used to hold the bulb of radium emanation in the center of the group. In F...

The Plant as a Factor in the Action of Bordeaux Mixture as an Insecticide

Tests with inverted petri dishes covered with capping membranes and containing sugar solutions or expressed plant juices showed that copper could be dissolved from Bordeaux mixture residues sprayed on the capping membranes. Distilled water, used in the same manner, gave negative results. Rain-water collected over a period of approximately three months and which had passed through glass funnels containing filter papers covered with Bordeaux mixture residue gave negative chemical tests for copper. Rain-water collected from plants sprayed with Bordeaux mixture and leaves containing Bordeaux mixture washed in water gave chemical tests for copper. Rain or dew is not necessary on the Bordeaux mixture sprayed plant in order to ki11leafhoppers. Refractometer readings of sprayed and unsprayed plant juices showed that, as a rule, in vigorous growing plants the solid (sugar) content of the sprayed plants was lowered for about two days below that of the unsprayed plants but soon became higher and with few exceptions usual1y remained higher than that of the unsprayed plants for about two weeks.

TREATMENT OF ANASARCA WITH CUPPING-GLASS AND SIPHON

In certain severe phases of chronic interstitial nephritis, when the water in the skin and cavities of the body is superabundant and when the kidneys are not acting normally, we are obliged to remove this excess of fluid from the surface of the skin by mechanical means. For that purpose several methods are in use, such as the method of incision, the capillary tube of Southey, the elliptic cannula of Curschmann, the bent cannula of Mueller, and the cannula drainage of Furbringer. The method of Straub and Curschmann, first with a glass funnel and later with an apparatus shaped like a cupping-glass to which is affixed rubber tubing, has not become widely used, comparatively good as it is. The method of drainage by metal tubes is not satisfactory because of the irritation it induces, and the infection and inflammation which sometimes occur; moreover, the quantity of fluid removable is not

THE SIMPLEST, EASIEST AND BEST METHOD OF IRRIGATING THE BLADDER.

Insert one end of a glass pipette into the open end of a soft rubber catheter, over the other end of the pipette slip a piece of rubber tubing. Prepare the irrigating solution in a graduate of proper size. Introduce the catheter and allow the bladder contents to flow out into a convenient vessel; grasp the rubber tubing with left thumb and index finger just as the flow ceases and press it firmly together, thus preventing the entrance of air into the bladder. While thus holding the tube insert into it the stem of a glass funnel and elevate it over the abdomen; at the same time, with the right hand, begin pouring the solution into the funnel, being careful to keep enough in the funnel to prevent the entrance of air. When the desired quantity has been introduced, press the rubber tube again, lower the funnel and allow the

III. On melting point

The investigation, of which the memoir contains an account, was undertaken in order to determine, with considerable accuracy, the temperature at which certain organic substances pass from the solid to the liquid state. The apparatus, of which an engraving, on a scale of one-fourth, is given below, consists of a bath nearly filled with oil of vitriol. In this is inserted a glass funnel, having on its lower edge six equidistant semicircular cuts of about 5 millims. radius, and, at the end of the neck, four of the same. A thin test-tube, resting freely on the funnel, contains a bath of paraffin oil, in which the thermometer’s bulb is centrally placed; against the bulb, in a little tube separately represented, is fixed the substance whose melting point is to be determined. When the large bath is heated, constrained and regular convection takes place in the liquid; the effect upon the thermometer is such as to cause the mercury to rise with very great steadiness.

X. On the detection of organic and other nitrogenized matter existing in the atmosphere

In this communication the author describes a method which he has devised, and which he names “distillation by cold,” by which lie believes the detection and determination of ammonia and other organic impurities existing in the atmosphere will be greatly facilitated. A glass funnel (usually of 8 or 9 inches) is drawn to a point and closed. It is supported in an ordinary stand, and filled with ice. Condensation of the watery vapour of the atmosphere then takes place; the dew collects into drops, which trickle down the outside of the funnel, and at last fall from the point, under which a small receiver is placed to catch them. The total quantity of liquid collected in a given time is measured, and the quantity of ammonia determined by Nessler’s test.

XLI. An account of some new experiments in Electricity, containing, 1. An enquiry whether vapour be a conductor of electricity. 2. Some experiments, to ascertain the direction of the electric matter, in the discharge of the leyden bottle: with a new analysis of the leyden bottle. 3. Experiments on the lateral explosion, in the discharge of the leyden bottle. 4.

XLI. An Account of some new Experiments in Electricity, containing, 1. An Enquiry whether Vapour be a Conductor of Electricity. 2. Some Experiments, to ascertain the Direction of the Electric Matter, in the Discharge of the Leyden Bottle: with a new Analysis of the Leyden Bottle. 3. Experiments on the lateral Explosion, in the discharge of the Leyden Bottle. 4. The Description, and Use, of a new Prime-conductor. 5. Miscellaneaous Experiments, made principally in the Years 1771 and 1772. 6. Experiments and Observations on the Electricity of Fogs, &c. in the Pursuance of those made by Thomas Ronayne, Esq; with a Plan of an Electrical Journal, &c. Insulated a glass funnel [Tab. XIII. fig. 1.] into which the streams, from a capillary tube, were directed by the electricity.