1887

Abstract

Summary: The use of plate glass sheets carrying twenty-four cylinders in place of Petri dishes for the biological assay of streptomycin by the cylinder-plate method initially led to large assay errors. The substitution of cavities for cylinders, of a single layer of agar for two layers, one sterile and one inoculated, of the four-point assay design for ‘reading off the curve’, and of an optical projection method of measurement diminished the fiducial limits of error of an assay to 80–125% ( = 0·95).

Over the range of concentrations 0·1–100·0 units streptomycin/ml. the deviations from linearity of the graph of zone diameter against the logarithm of the concentration were very small.

Variations in thickness of the agar layer and in the intensity of inoculation had a marked effect on zone diameter.

An 8 × 8 Latin square lay-out reduced the internal error of an assay to 91–110% ( = 0·95), and with this increased accuracy a bias in the results was revealed arising from the time interval between filling successive cavities on the plate. This time effect was eliminated by the adoption of an appropriate order of filling, with a quasi-Latin square lay-out. The form of the assay finally adopted had fiducial limits of error, estimated both internally and externally, of about 95–105% ( = 0·95).

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/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-2-1-40
1948-01-01
2024-03-28
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References

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