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[ 101 ] 



tlbe rnMcrobe of flDalarial fever. 



DR. Hoisholt, of Stockholm, U.S., has read a paper at the 

 Medical Society of the State of California on the " Plas- 

 modium MalaricEr After mentioning the principal ideas 

 brought forward as to the nature of the disease from the time of 

 Hippocrates to the middle of the present century, the author 

 alluded briefly to the most noted germ theories, and the character 

 of the different microbes, claimed, by various investigators, to be 

 the cause of malaria, ist, Salisbury's unicellular alga, palmella 

 geviiasma ; 2nd, Lanzi's germ-ferment, identical with bacteridium 

 bruntieum ; 3rd, Eklund's fungus, limnophysalis hyalina ; 4th, 

 Kleeb's and Tomasi-Crudeli's bacillus malaricE; and 5th, Laveran's 

 oscillaria jnalarice, now known 2i?> Plasmodium malaricz. 



Since this French observer first published his fundamental re- 

 searches (1881), many eminent investigators have corroborated his 

 discovery, and have contributed largely to our knowledge of the 

 parasitic malaria, having ascertained that it attacks the red blood 

 corpuscles, lives and grows with them, and finally brings about 

 their disintegration. It can be observed as follows : — After taking 

 the proper precautions in removing the blood from the tip of the 

 finger, it is fixed on cover glasses, and heated at a temperature of 

 105^ to 110° C. (220° to 230° F.), for about half-an-hour. The 

 cover-glasses are left for twenty-four hours in a neutral solution, 

 consisting of equal parts of a J per cent, aqueous solution of 

 eosin, and a saturated aqueous solution of methelyne blue, diluted 

 one half with distilled water. This is Romanowsky's colour test. 

 He examined the blood in this manner in fifty cases of different 

 diseases, not malarial, and in health, without being able to detect 

 anything of the microbe in question. 



— Man. Mag. Phannacy. 



Botes. 



WE are glad to note that the Conversazione of the Royal 

 Microscopical Society, held at St. James's on Nov. 30th, 

 passed off so successfully. Of late years the interest in 

 the Society's exhibitions fell off considerably, owing principally to 

 want of space and also to the fact that ladies were not admitted. 

 Now that the " Royal " has again interested itself in the success of 

 its Conversazione, microscopists will look forward to it as being 

 the principal microscopic, or rather macroscopic, event of the year. 



