Sterilization

(ster-il-iz-a' -shun). The condition of rendering sterile, infertile, or incapable of reproducing. In bacteriology, the destruction by heat of the spores or mature forms of bacilli, micrococci, or other forms of microscopic life. In most instances a temperature of ioo° C. devitalizes not only the mature forms, but the spores as well. In a few instances this temperature is not fatal to either. This, e. g., is the case with B. tenuis, the rods resisting loo° and the spores 115°. S., Hueppe's Method of, the repeated exposure to a temperature of from 5 20 to 65 C. S., Intermittent, a method of sterilization of organic infusions introduced by Prof. Tyndall, in which an interval of time is allowed to elapse between the several heatings, giving an opportunity for any spores present to develop into adult microbes, in which form they readily succumb to the action of heat. S.-test, Hochenegg's, the surgical dre ings are impregnated with a mixture composed of 150 parts of a solution of aluminum acetate of the Austrian Pharmacopeia, 150 parts water, and 5 parts of a 21 per cent, paste of alizarin. This is a yellowish-brown mixture, but on exposure to the temperature of boiling water becomes bright-red.