This investigation was undertaken to test the action of acid-fast bacilli on the glucosides, and to see how far any fermentation reactions obtained would differ with the various strains of human and bovine tubercle bacilli tested, and also to obtain if possible a better medium on which to isolate and grow tubercle bacilli. In all, 43 glucosides were tested with acid-fast bacilli, including human and bovine tubercle bacilli, but there was no evidence of fermentation with any of the glucosides.

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... e glucoside, ericolin, was found to kill off a large number of species of micro-organisms, especially bacilli of the colon group and various cocci, but had very little effect on the acid-fast group of bacilli. By means of this glucoside the isolation of tubercle bacilli directly from human sputum contaminated with other organisms becomes quite easy. The glucoside should be made up with distilled water in a 2-per-cent, solution: a lump of sputum is then placed into a test-tube containing the ericolin and placed at 38° C. for f hour to 1 hour; sub-cultures are then made on to Dorset's egg medium, and pure growths of tubercle bacilli will be obtained in 14-28 days; the tubes are sometimes contaminated with a few other organisms, chiefly tiny colonies of streptococci and slow-growing colonies of organisms of the streptothrix group, but they are so few that they in no way interfere with the tubercle colonies, which can be easily sub-cultured.