Anaerobic Cultivations

Numerous methods have been devised for the cultivation of anaerobic bacteria, the majority requiring the employment of special apparatus. The principle upon which any method is based and upon which it depends for its success falls under one or another of the following headings:

(a) Exclusion of air from the cultivation.

(b) Exhaustion of air from the vessel containing the cultivation by means of an air pump—i. e., cultivation in vacuo.

(c) Absorption of oxygen from the air in contact with the cultivation by means of pyrogallic acid rendered alkaline with caustic soda—i. e., cultivation in an atmosphere of nitrogen.

(d) Displacement of air by an indifferent gas, such as hydrogen or coal gas—i. e., cultivation in an atmosphere of hydrogen.

(e) A combination of two or more of the above methods.

A selection of the simplest and most generally useful methods is given here.

Whenever possible, the nutrient media that are employed in any of the processes should contain some easily oxidisable substance, such as sodium formate (0.4 per cent.) or sodium sulphindigotate (0.1 per cent.), which will absorb all the available oxygen held in solution by the medium. The further addition of glucose, 2 per cent., favors the growth of anaerobic bacteria (vide, pages 189-190).

Further, it is advisable to seal all joints between india-rubber stoppers and tubulures or the mouths of the tubes with melted paraffin; glass stoppers and taps should be lubricated with resin ointment or a mixture of beeswax 1 part, olive oil 4 parts.

(A) Method I (Hesse's Method).—

1. Make a stab culture in gelatine or agar, choosing for the purpose a straight tube containing a deep column of medium, and thrusting the inoculating needle to the bottom of the tube.

2. Pour a layer of sterilised oil (olive oil, vaseline, or petroleum), 1 or 2 cm. deep, upon the surface of the medium.

3. Incubate.

Method II.—This method is only available when dealing with pure cultivations.

1. Liquefy a tube of gelatine (or agar) by heat, pour it into a Petri dish, and allow it to solidify.

2. Inoculate the surface of the medium in one spot only.

3. Remove a cover-slip from the pot of absolute alcohol with sterile forceps; burn off the alcohol in the gas flame.

4. Lower the now sterile cover-slip carefully on to the inoculated surface of the medium, carefully excluding air bubbles, and press it down firmly with the points of the forceps. (A sterile disc of mica may be substituted for the cover-slip.)

5. Incubate.

Method III (Roux's Physical Method).—

1. Prepare tube cultures of fluid media (or solid media rendered fluid by heat) in the usual way.

2. Aspirate some of the inoculated media into capillary pipettes.

3. Seal both ends of each pipette in the blowpipe flame.

4. Incubate.

Method IV (Roux's Biological Method).—

1. Plant a deep stab, as in method I.

2. Pour a layer, 1 or 2 cm. deep, of broth cultivation of a vigourous aerobe—e. g., B. aquatilis sulcatus or B. prodigiosus—upon the surface of the medium; or an equal depth of liquefied gelatine, which is then inoculated with the aerobic organism.

3. Incubate.

The growth of the aerobe will use up all the oxygen that reaches it and will not allow any to pass through to the medium below, which will consequently remain in an anaerobic condition.

(B) Method V.—

1. Prepare tube or flask cultivations in the usual way.

2. Replace the cotton-wool plug by an india-rubber stopper perforated with one hole and fitted with a length of glass tubing which has a constriction about 3 cm. above the stopper and is then bent at right angles (Fig. 129). The stopper and glass tubing are sterilised by being boiled in a beaker of water for five minutes.

3. Connect the tube leading from the culture vessel with a water or air pump, interposing a Wulff's bottle fitted as a wash-bottle and containing sulphuric acid.

4. Exhaust the air from the culture vessel.

5. Before disconnecting the apparatus, seal the glass tube from the culture vessel at the constriction, using the blowpipe flame.

6. Incubate.

(C) Method VI (Buchner's Method).

Apparatus and Solutions Required.—

Buchner's tube (a stout glass test-tube 23 cm. long and 4 cm. in diameter, fitted with india-rubber stopper, Fig. 130).

Pyrogallic acid in compressed tablets each containing 1 gram.

Dekanormal solution of caustic soda.

Method.—

1. Prepare the tube cultivation in the usual way.

2. Moisten the india-rubber stopper of the Buchner's tube with water and see that it fits the mouth of the tube accurately.

3. Remove the stopper from the caustic soda bottle.

4. Drop one of the pyrogallic acid tablets into the Buchner's tube (roughly, use 1 gramme pyrogallic acid for every 100 c.c. air capacity of the receiving vessel).

5. Add about 1 c.c. of the soda solution.

6. Place the inoculated tube inside the Buchner's tube. The pyrogallic tablet acts as a buffer and prevents damage to either the inoculated tube or the Buchner's tube even should it be slipped in hurriedly.

7. Fit the india-rubber stopper tightly into the mouth of the Buchner's tube.

The pyrogallic acid tablet dissolves slowly in the soda solution and its oxidation proceeds very slowly at first so that ample time is available when this method is adopted.

8. Restopper the caustic soda bottle.

9. Place Buchner's tube in a wire support, and incubate.

Method VII (Wright's Method).—

1. Prepare tube cultivation in the usual way.

2. Cut off that portion of the cotton-wool plug projecting above the mouth of the tube with scissors, then push the plug into the tube for a distance of 2 or 3 cm.

3. By means of a pipette drop about 1 c.c. of pyrogallic acid 10 per cent. aqueous solution on to the plug. It will immediately be absorbed by the cotton-wool.

4. With another pipette run in an equal quantity of the caustic soda solution.

5. Quickly close the mouth of the tube with a tightly fitting india-rubber stopper.

6. Incubate.

Method VIII (McLeod's Method).—

Apparatus and Solutions Required.—

McLeod's plate base (a hollow glazed earthenware disc 9 cm. in diameter and 2 cm. deep: the upper surface is pierced by a central hole, 2 cm. in diameter, giving access to the interior, the lower part of which is divided into two by a low partition. A shallow groove encircles the upper surface near to the edge).

Plasticine.
Pyrogallic acid (1 gramme) compressed tablets.
Sodic hydroxide (0.4 gramme) compressed tablets.
Wash bottle of distilled water.
Surface plates of one or other agar medium (in petri dishes of 8 cm. diameter).
Surface plate spreader.

Method.—

1. Roll out a long cylinder of plasticine and fit it into the groove on the upper surface of the earthenware base.

2. Place a tablet of pyrogallic acid in one division of the interior of the plate base, and two tablets of sodic hydroxide in the other.

3. Prepare surface plate culture of the organism to be cultivated.

4. Run a few cubic centimetres of distilled water into that division of the plate base containing the sodic hydroxide.

5. Invert the bottom half of the surface plate over the plate base and press its edges firmly down into the plasticine filling the groove.

6. Label and incubate.

(D) Method IX.—

Apparatus Required.—

Small Ruffer's or Woodhead's flask (Fig. 33).
Sterile india-rubber stopper.
India-rubber tubing.
Glass tubing.
Metal screw clips.
Cylinder of compressed hydrogen; or hydrogen gas apparatus

Method.—

1. Sterilise a glass vessel, shaped as in a Ruffer's or Woodhead's flask, in the hot-air oven. (The tubulure and the side tubes are plugged with cotton-wool.) After sterilisation, fix a short piece of rubber tubing occluded by a metal clip to each side tube.

2. Inoculate a large quantity (e. g., 200 c.c.) of the medium. Where solid media are employed they must first be liquefied by heat.

3. Remove the cotton-wool plug from the tubulure and pour the inoculated medium into the glass vessel.

4. Close the tubulure by means of an india-rubber stopper previously sterilised by boiling in a beaker of water.

5. Connect up the india-rubber tubing on one of the side tubes with a cylinder of compressed hydrogen (or the delivery tube of a Kipp's Fig. 132 or other hydrogen apparatus, Fig. 133), interposing a short piece of glass tubing; and in like manner connect a long piece of rubber tubing which should be led into a basin of water, to the opposite side tube.

6. Open both metal clips and pass hydrogen through the vessel until the atmospheric air is replaced by hydrogen. This is determined by collecting some of the gas which bubbles through the water in the basin in a test-tube and testing it by means of a lighted taper.

7. Close the metal clip on the tube through which the gas is entering; close the clip on the exit tube.

8. Disconnect the gas apparatus.

9. Incubate.

Method X (Botkin's Method).—

Apparatus Required.—

Large glass dish 20 cm. diameter and 8 cm. deep. Flat leaden
cross slightly shorter than the internal diameter of the glass dish.
Bell glass about 15 cm. diameter and 20 to 25 cm. high.
Metal frame for plate cultivations.
Or, glass battery jar for tube cultivations.
Cylinder of compressed hydrogen.
Rubber tubing.
Two pieces of U-shaped glass tubing (each arm 8 cm. in length).
Half a litre of glycerine (or metallic mercury).

Method.—

1. Place the leaden cross inside the glass dish, resting on the bottom.

2. Prepare the cultivations in the usual way.

3. Place the tube cultivations in a glass battery jar (or the plate cultivations on a metal frame), resting on the centre of the leaden cross.

4. Cover the cultivations with the bell jar.

5. Adjust the U-shaped pieces of glass tubing in a vertical position on opposite sides of the bell jar, one arm of each inside the jar, the other outside. These tubes are best held in position by embedding the U-shaped bends in two lumps of plasterine stuck on the bottom of the glass dish. Fix a short length of rubber tubing clamped with a metal clip to each of the outside arms (Fig. 134).

6. Fill the glass dish with glycerine or metallic mercury to a depth of about 5 cm.

7. Connect up one U-shaped tube with the hydrogen cylinder (or gas apparatus) by means of rubber tubing. Replace the atmospheric air by hydrogen, as in method IX.

8. Clamp the tubes and disconnect the gas apparatus.

9. Incubate.

Method XI (Novy's Method).—

Apparatus Required.—

Jar for plate cultivations (Fig. 135).
Or, jar for tube cultivations (Fig. 136).
Lubricant for stopper of jar.
Rubber tubing.
Cylinder of compressed hydrogen.

Method.—

1. Prepare cultivations in the usual way.

2. Place these inside the jar.

3. Lubricate the stopper and insert it in the mouth of the jar, with the handle in a line with the two side tubes.

4. Connect up the delivery tube a with the hydrogen gas supply by means of rubber tubing.

5. Attach a piece of rubber tubing to the exit tube b and collect samples of the issuing gas (over water) and test from time to time.

6. When the air is completely displaced by hydrogen, turn the handle of the stopper at right angles to the line of entry and exit tubes; this seals the orifice of both tubes.

7. Disconnect the gas apparatus and incubate.

(E) Method XII (Bulloch's Method).—

Apparatus Required.—

Bulloch's jar.
Pot of resin ointment.
Small glass dish 14 cm. diameter by 5 cm. deep.
Vessel for tube cultures or metal rack for plate cultures.
Pyrogallic acid tablets.
Cylinder of compressed hydrogen.
Geryk or other air pump.
Rubber pressure tubing.
10 c.c. pipette.
Glass tubing.
Dry granulated caustic soda or compressed tablets each, containing
0.4 grammes sodic hydroxide.
Small beaker of water.

Method.—

1. Prepare the cultivations in the usual way.

2. Place the glass dish in the centre of the glass slab, and stand the cultivations inside this.

3. Place a sufficient number of pyrogallic acid tablets at one side of the glass dish (i. e., 1 tablet for each 100 cubic centimeters air capacity of the bell jar). Place a small heap of dry granulated soda (or half a dozen tablets of sodic hydroxide) by the side of the pyro tablets.

4. Smear the flange of the bell jar with resin ointment and apply the jar firmly to the glass slab, covering the cultivations—so arranged that the long tube passes with its lower end into the glass dish at a point directly opposite to the pyrogallic acid tablets. Lubricate the two stop-cocks with resin ointment (Fig. 137).

5. Connect up the short tube a with the gas-supply by means of rubber pressure tubing and open both stop-cocks.

6. Connect a long, straight piece of glass tubing to the long tube b by means of a piece of rubber tubing interposing a screw clamp: and collect samples of the issuing gas from time to time and test.

7. When the air is displaced, shut off the stop-cock of the entry tube, then that of the exit tube b. Screw down the clamp and remove the glass tube from the rubber connection and connect up the short tube a to the air pump by means of pressure tubing.

8. Open the stop-cock of tube a and with two or three strokes of the air pump, aspirate a small quantity of gas, so creating a slight vacuum. Then shut off the stop-cock and disconnect the air pump.

9. Fill the 10 c.c. bulb pipette with water; insert its point into the rubber tubing on the long tube b as far as the screw clamp. Open the screw clamp and run in water until stopped by the internal pressure. Shut off stop-cock. (The water dissolves the soda and pyrogallic acid converting the latter into alkaline pyro. and so bringing its latent capacity for oxygen into action).

10. Reverse the tubes from the tubulures so that they meet, out of harm's way, over the top of the bell glass; again see that all joints are tight and transfer the apparatus to the incubator.

This last method is the most satisfactory for anaerobic cultivations, as by its means complete anaerobiosis can be obtained with the least expenditure of time and trouble.