86 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



each other, and to break away from their point of 

 attachment, so that in the examination of moulds it is 

 necessary to ascertain the mode of attachment and 

 arrangement of the spores before water is applied. 



(To be continued.) 



MICROSCOPY. 



The New Cross Microscopical and Natural 

 History Society. — We have received the seventh 

 annual report of this society. It contains an abstract 

 of their monthly meetings, which appear to have 

 been very productive, and Mr. Martin Burgess's 

 (President) address, printed in full. 



Cause of Cholera in Fowls. — M. Pasteur 

 has recently read a paper on this subject before 

 the Academy of Sciences, Paris, entitled " On 

 Virulent Maladies, and Particularly on the Malady 

 commonly called the Cholera of Fowls." The 

 small organism (or microbe) which causes this malady 

 can be well cultivated in a broth composed of 

 fowls' muscles neutralised by potash, and sterilised 

 by a temperature of iio° to 115 . Inoculation of 

 guinea pigs with it causes only abscess, but fowls 

 inoculated with the contents of the abscess die. 

 Fowls or rabbits living in company with the guinea- 

 pigs having abscess become ill and die. The microbe 

 multiplies in the intestines of fowls that have taken 

 it with food, and the infected excrement is fatal to 

 fowls inoculated with it. Repeated culture of the 

 microbe by transference of minute drops from liquid 

 to liquid does not weaken the virulence, but by a 

 certain mode of culture M. Pasteur can weaken it. 

 If twenty out of forty fowls be inoculated with the 

 very virulent virus, they nearly all die ; but if the 

 other twenty be inoculated with the attenuated 

 virus, they all become ill, but very few die ; inocu- 

 lation of those that recover with the very infectious 

 virus does not kill them. The novelty here is the 

 preservative effect of inoculation in a disease caused 

 by a living organism (in the virus of small-pox, &c, 

 no life has been proved). The cholera of fowls may 

 be prevented from becoming fatal, and M. Pasteur 

 describes the return to health of a fowl inoculated 

 in the large pectoral muscles. He expresses the 

 hope of obtaining artificial cultures of all kinds of 

 virus, and notes the encouragement obtained for the 

 search of vaccine virus of virulent maladies. 



Portfolio of Microscopic Objects. — We 

 have received No. 2 of the "Portfolio of Drawings, 

 and Descriptions of Living Organisms " (animal and 

 vegetable), illustrative of freshwater and marine 

 life which have been sent out with the living speci- 

 mens by Mr. Thomas Bolton, F.R.M.S., 17 Ann 

 Street, Birmingham. It contains, in the vegetable 

 kingdom : Hydrodictyon utriculatum ; in the animal 



kingdom, Spongilla fluviatilis, Peridinium tabula- 

 turn, Ophrydium versatile, Stentor Barretti, Carche- 

 sium spectabile, Hydra vulgaris, Leptodora hyalina, 

 Ilyalodaphnia Kahlbergensis [Dapknia Bairdii), Sida 

 crystalliua, Diaptovius Castor, Carcinus Mcenas, in 

 the Zcea stage, Cristatella mucedo, Lophopus crystal- 

 Units, Spirorbis nautiloides, circulation in the egg 

 of trout and young salmon. It gives us great pleasure 

 to see Mr. Bolton succeeding so well with his 

 scheme of a natural history studio. His weekly 

 bottle is a great aid to naturalists, &c, who have 

 not the time or opportunity to obtain the objects 

 themselves. 



The Postal Microscopical Society. — We 

 have received from the Hon. Secretary (Mr. A. 

 Allen) the Annual Report of this Society for 1879, 

 whose sixth annual meeting and dinner was held on 

 November 10, at the Holborn Restaurant, Dr. H. 

 Franklin Parsons, President, in the chair. When 

 the Report had been read by the Hon. Secretary, 

 the President delivered an address on "The Micro- 

 scope in its Applications." We are pleased to see 

 the healthy state of this society, and our interest in 

 it is in nowise lessened, when we remember that it 

 originated through a discussion in our columns 

 (Science-Gossip, vol. x. 1874). 



The Quekett Microscopic Club. — We have 

 received No. 42 of the "Journal" of this well-known 

 society containing, amongst other matter, the inaugu- 

 ral address of the President, Dr. T. S. Cobbold, 

 F.R.S., &c, and articles "On Collecting and 

 Mounting Spiders' Webs," by George Hind; "On 

 the Germination of a Seed," by A. Martinelli ; 

 "On the Embryology of Achimenes picta," by 

 T. S. Cobbold, M.D., F.R.S. ; "On a New Universal 

 Motion Stage and Object-holder," by R. G. West ; 

 and a " Description of a ' Growing Slide ' for Minute 

 Organisms," constructed by Julian Deby, C.E., &c. 



Meeting of the Manchester Microscopical 

 Society. — This society held its " Inaugural Soiree," 

 last February, the evening passing off very satis- 

 factorily. About fifty microscopes were exhibited, 

 most of them binocular, by various members. Dr. 

 Tatham, M.D., the President, delivered an address 

 on "The Microscope," in which he said it was an 

 instrument known to Aristophanes. Amongst the 

 slides shown were some exquisitely mounted speci- 

 mens of marine algae, contributed by Miss E. H. 

 Bowing. The society now numbers ninety-three 

 members, and there is every reason to believe the 

 number will be doubled before next February. 



Doncaster Microscopical Society. — We are 

 glad to announce that a microscopical society has 

 been formed in Doncaster under the above title. 

 The society is in a very prosperous condition, as 

 appears from its syllabus. Among the papers to 

 be read during the present season are the following : 



