MICROSCOPY. 367 



Life History of a Minute Septic Organism. 



The Rev. W. H. Dallinger's paper on this subject, in the 

 Proceedings of the Royal Society, No. 187, 1878, is one of ex- 

 ceeding interest, and is accessible to American readers in the 

 admirable reprint in the American Journal of Microscopy 

 for August, 1878. The story is clearly and conscientiously 

 told, and one feels assured at every step that the author is 

 not only stating facts that hereafter cannot be questioned, 

 but that he is admirably fitted in every way to conduct 

 such delicate investigations. It is impossible in our limited 

 space to do any justice to this paper by an abstract. 



Bacteria in Splenic Disease. 



M. H. Toussaint claims that in splenic disease death results 

 not from a virus, but from obstruction of the capillaries of 

 essential organs, as the brain and lungs, by the rapid multipli- 

 cation of Bacteria. Fresh Bacteria blood, received in tubes, 

 and preserved from contact with the air and from putrefac- 

 tion, loses its contagious properties in six or eight days, or 

 sooner if kept at a temperature of from 38 to 40 C. ; but 

 such a method would be adopted to preserve virus ( Comptes 

 Benches, March 18, 1878). 



INFUSORIA, DIATOMS, RADIOLARIA, ETC. 



Trembley's Experiments in Turning a Hydra Inside Out. 



Professor Engelmann, of Utrecht, has repeated Tremb- 

 ley's celebrated experiment with negative results. "With an- 

 imals of suitable size, and a hog's bristle of proper size and 

 shape, the experiment was easily performed ; they were tak- 

 en from both slow-running and stagnant waters. He found 



CD Cj 



that the turned body, when it did not soon resume its normal 

 position, always perished within a short time; the cells, and 

 first of all those of the entoderm, swelled very much, gradual- 

 ly loosened themselves from their connection, and were found 

 after a day or two, like a small white cloud, at the bottom of 

 the glass. The experiments in clipping off small pieces of 

 the tentacles, which developed into perfect five-armed Polypi, 

 and with Hydrce, which had been slit longitudinally, and 

 readily grew together, proved that the conditions were not 



