“In a glass-beaker with pad of cotton-wool at bottom place tube containing cultivation, the three tubes to be inoculated, three glass rods which have to be sterilised, and a thermometer. Liquefy the gelatine in the three tubes by placing them in a beaker containing water 30° C. Keep the tubes, both before and after the inoculation, in the warm water to maintain the gelatine in a state of liquefaction. Remove the plug from the culture and also the plug of test-tube with liquefied jelly. With the needle take up a droplet of the cultivation and stir it round in the liquefied jelly. Replace both plugs, and set aside the cultivation. Hold the freshly-inoculated tube almost horizontally, then raise it to the vertical, so that the liquid gelatine gently flows back. By repeating this motion, and rolling the tube, the micro-organisms which have been introduced are distributed throughout the gelatine. Any violent shaking, and consequent formation of bubbles, must be carefully avoided. Inoculate the second tube, and also third, in the same way, but with three droplets from a sterilised needle. The next process consists in pouring out the gelatine on glass plates and allowing it to solidify. “Remove cover of box containing sterilised plates, withdraw a plate with sterilised forceps, and rapidly transfer it to the filter-paper under the bell-glass and quickly replace cover of box. Remove plug from the test-tube which was first inoculated, and the contents are poured out on the plate. With a glass rod the gelatine must be then rapidly spread out in an even layer within about half an inch of the margin of the plate, the bell-glass is replaced, and the gelatine is allowed to set. Meanwhile a glass bench is placed in damp chamber, upon which the plate is placed when the gelatine is quite solid; precisely the same process is repeated with the other tubes. “The colonies will be found to develop in the course of a day or two, the time varying with the temperature of the room. The lower plate will contain a countless number of colonies, which, if the micro-organisms liquefy gelatine, speedily commingle, and produce in a very short time a complete liquefaction of the whole gelatine. On the middle plate the colonies will also be very numerous, but retain their isolated positions for a longer time; while on the uppermost plate the colonies are completely isolated from one another, with an appreciable surface of gelatine intervening. “The microscopical appearances of the colonies are best studied by placing the plate on a slab of blackened glass, or on a porcelain slab if the colonies are coloured. A small diaphragm is used, and the appearances studied principally with a low power. A much simpler method of plate-cultivation is to pour the liquefied jelly into shallow flat dishes; they take up much less room, and in many ways are more convenient.