392 SUMMARY OF CURRENT I.I'.SEARCHES RELATING TO 



readily withdrawn, and the gelatin capsule is removed by means of a 

 wire hook, a transparent celloidin capsule being left. This is then 

 sterilised and filled or inoculated, and then closed by passing a small 

 ping of aseptic wool down the neck of the capsule, and capped with a 

 drop of paraffin. The author claims that these capsules have strength, 

 maximum of dialysing surface, no limit to capacity, and other obvious 

 advantages. 



Method for Photographing Superficial Bacterial Colonies.* — 

 L. de Jager employs the following method for photographing certain 

 transparent superficial bacterial colonies. On to the surface of the 

 gelatin or agar-plate culture is pasted a piece of smooth, thin gummed 

 paper ; when this is removed again, after the manner of preparing a 

 hektograpkic copy, the whole of the surface colony adheres to it ; the 

 paper is then dried and flamed like a coverslip, until it assumes a yellow 

 colour : it is then covered with a concentrated solution of toluidin-blue, 

 a piece of blotting-paper being placed under it to prevent the under 

 surface from being stained ; the colonies stain dark blue, and paper 

 faint blue ; after a few minutes the stain is removed by repeated wash- 

 ings in water ; the paper is then soaked in oil, which renders it quite 

 transparent, and it can then be used as a photographic negative. When 

 printing, in order to protect the celloidin paper from the oil, it is well 

 to interpose a layer of collodiuni between the two papers. 



Red Blood Cells in Malaria.f — S. Sereni has subjected the blood of 

 malarial patients to the centrifuge, and also to spontaneous sedimenta- 

 tion, and found that the red cells containing parasites preponderated 

 only in the outermost zone of the centrifuged blood or in the lowest 

 layers of the sedimented blood, and this was irrespective of the period 

 or stage of the parasite, with the exception of the half -moon forms which 

 were found in the zone between the globular sediment and the blood 

 serum. The author concludes that the presence of a malarial parasite 

 increases the specific gravity of the blood corpuscles, and that the 

 crescent forms diminish their specific gravity. The author considers 

 that to this increase of specific gravity, and consequent diminution of 

 elasticity, and also to the increase of superficial viscosity, may be 

 referred the fact that the parasite-holding red cells are fewer in the 

 circulation, and in fresh blood are less readily distinguished than normal 

 cells, and may also account for the accumulation of red cells containing 

 developing or spore-forming parasites in the capillary network of various 

 organs, and especially in the brain. 



Moysey, L. — Method of Splitting Ironstone Nodules by means of an Artificial 

 Freezing Mixture. 



[Method of freeing fossils without damage ; though not strictly micro- 

 scopical, the method is indirectly useful if slices or sections of a fossil be 

 required.] Geological Mag., v. (1908) pp. 220-2. 



* Centralbl. Bakt., lte Abt. Orig., slvi. (190S) p. 92. 

 t Op. cit.lte! Abt. Ref., xl. (1908) p. 850. 



