Abstract
1) On 30 cases of pulmonary tuberculosis, the number of tubercle bacilli in 80 twentyfour-hour-specimens of sputa were counted by smear and culture methods. The methods and the results were described and discussed in the present paper.
2) There were many cases who showed significant differences between the Gaffky numbers of purulent parts of sputa and of the homogenized specimens in 24-hours excretions. Therefore, in order to know the number of bacilli excreted, it may be more accurate to examine the homogenized sputa in twenty-four-hours.
3) The daily fluctuation of the number of bacilli excreted by one patient for twenty-four-hours was comparatively little.
4) The daily number of bacilli counted by the culture method was generally smaller than that obtained by the smear method. Most of the examinations showed that the ratio between the bacillary counts by culture and the count by smear covered 11% to 100%, and the average was 43.2%.
