GB1234044A - - Google Patents

Abstract

1,234,044. Portable containers; container closures. CONSOLIDATED LABORATORIES Inc. 13 June, 1968 [9 April, 1968], No. 28197/68. Headings B8D and B8T. [Also in Division C6] An assembly for acquiring microbiological or other specimens comprises a tubular plastics or glass container body 2, which is closed at one end and open at the other and provided with a longitudinally-extending partition 5 dividing the container body into two or more discrete chambers A and B. The open end of the container is sealed by a closure cap 10a which is provided with an annular skirt having a sealing rib 13 for engagement with a peripheral groove in the container body and a bifurcated transverse rib 16 for sealing engagement with an end projection 7 of the partition, the cap mounting a specimen-acquiring member T, such as a capillary-tube, swab, or a plastics or wooden spatula, which extends into one of the chambers. Instead of the specimen-acquiring member extending through the cap as shown, it may be retained in a blind bore 20 or 21 formed in the cap, Fig. 4 (not shown). The complete assembly is sterilized, as by cold sterilization or irradiation, and a preserving or growth medium, such as a saline solution or lactose broth, aseptically added to the chamber B. In use, the swab or capillary tube is removed from chamber A by detaching the cap and a specimen procured from the patient. The cap is then replaced on the container body with the swab or tube disposed in the chamber B carrying the preserving or growth medium. Alternatively, when the growth medium in chamber B is in the form of a liquefied solid having an inclined surface, the swab is stroked across the growth mediun surface and then replaced in chamber A or a third chamber if present.