To those who make microscopic examinations of sputum, either in private practice or in general laboratory work, it has all along been a question to secure a satisfactory receptacle in which the sample of sputum could be collected. Bottles, as a rule, are unsatisfactory from the difficulty of getting at their contents. The ordinary screw-top box comes back to the microscopist in such a condition that it is frequently unsafe, and certainly unsanitary, even to attempt to handle it. Moreover, the ordinary screw-top box swells on account of the moisture of the sample getting into the thread of the box, with the result that the box can frequently be opened only by breaking or splitting the lid.
To obviate these disagreeable features in the ordinary receptacle for securing such samples, I had made, over a year ago, a wooden box which consists of three pieces, as shown in the accompanying