In recent years the use of culture methods for the isolation of tubercle bacilli in the diagnosis of tuberculosis has received considerable attention. Several methods have been proposed for the isolation of tubercle bacilli, the majority being based on procedures designed to eliminate possible contaminants and to supply the peculiar nutritive requirements of the tubercle bacillus. Thus, the methods of Hohn,1 Petragnani,2 Miraglia3 and Loewenstein4 have been employed in various European laboratories, while the procedures devised by Petroff,5 Corper and Uyei,6 Sweany and Evanoff7 and others have received attention in this country.
Corper and Uyei studied the relative efficiency of various alkalis and acids in destroying contaminants in tuberculous materials. They concluded that acids, as recommended by Loewenstein, were superior to alkalis, and of the former, sulphuric acid gave the best results in their first series of tests. Based on this, they first