THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



159 



ant upon research in this direction. Was 

 there anything more diflficult a few years 

 ago than the study of bacteria ? Not until 

 Koch devised a convenient and compara- 

 tively easy method for this kind of inves- 

 tigation did this department, which to-day 

 is recognized as a branch in science, be- 

 came so popular. Even the medical 

 student of the first and second year is 

 taught to recognize and diagnose the 

 insignificant Bacillus tuberculosis. 



As has been said before, this paper is 

 but a preliminary one, and while the 

 author has been at work upon the i-ubject 

 for some time, the work has been done 

 under rather disadvantageous circum- 

 stances, and it is presented at this meet- 

 ing to elucidate a principle, and present 

 the results of what may be an incomplete 

 method, for your consideration. The 

 method of procedure is as follows : A 

 measured quantity (about .200 Gm.) ot 

 ■substance is thoroughly mixed with a 

 measured amount (2 or 3 C.c.) of water. 

 One, two or three drops formed on the 

 tfinger of this mixture are placed in the 

 ■slide and covered with a cover-glass. In 

 the eye-piece of the microscope is slipped 

 a piece of glass corresponding to an ocular 

 micrometer, containing 100 square Mm. 

 By a little practice a slide may be pre- 

 pared that is fairly uniform, or uniform 

 places upon it may be selected. This 

 ^being done, then a count is made of the 

 number of starch grains, fibres, or char- 

 acteristic tissue in the spurious substance, 

 •contained in 100 square Mm., and the 

 ■same compared with a genuine sample. 

 For instance, mixtures were made of 

 genuine cloves with potato-starch, wheat- 

 starch, cedar-wood, turmeric, and it was 

 •observed that quantitative relations by 

 comparison, do to some extent hold even in 

 this crude way of procedure. In deter- 

 mining the oil a slightly different method 

 was pursued. 



I. A sample of pure potato starch was examined 



and 100 (Mm.)" ■was found to contain 

 (32-(-28-J-32+35) 127 starch grains. An- 

 other 100 (Mm,)3 contained (32+30-1-28+ 

 30) 120 starch grains. 



II. A sample of powdered cloves admixed with 



50 per cent, of potato starch yielded the 

 following results : 

 (i) (14+ 15+ 12+ 15) 56 grains ==45.34 per cent. 



(2) (13+11+18+13) 55 " =44.53 



(3) (17+ 16+ 16+ 13) 62 " =50.20 " 



III. A sample containing 30 per cent, of potato 



starch : 

 (i) (10+ 10+ 11+ 11) 42 grains = 34.00 per cent. 

 (2) ( 7+T0+11+ 8) 36 " =29.14 



IV. A sample containing 20 per cent, of potato 



starch : 

 (i) (7+8+7+8) 30 grains = 24.29 per cent. 

 (2) (7+6+9+9) 31 " =25.10 



V. A sample containing 10 per cent, potato 



starch : 



(i) (4+2+3+2) II = 8.90 per cent, 



VI. A sample of pure red cedar yielded the 



following ; 



(i) (10+10+8+9) 37 fibres to ico (Mm.)- 



VII. Cloves containing 20 per cent, red cedar 



yielded : 



(i) 7 = 18.91 per cent. 

 (2) 9 = 24.35 

 (3)8 = 21.60 



VIII. Cloves containing 10 per cent, red cedar 

 yielded ; 



(1)4 fibres = 10.8 per cent, 

 (2) 3 " = 8.10 " 

 All of the above results were obtained 

 by using ^-inch objective. In the ex- 

 amination of tumeric ^-inch objective 

 was used. 



IX. Tumeric pure using one part of water r 



(i) (11+11+6+5)33 grains. 

 (2) (7+8+6+5) 26 " 

 Average+2 ^118 " 



X. Cloves containing 10 percent. tumeric using 



2 parts of watei : 



(i) 10 ^ 8.47 per cent. 



(2) II = 932 



(3) 10 = 8.47 



While the above results show a vari- 

 ance, and one that is not constant in any 

 one direction, still they are of some en- 

 couragement. Hoping that the possibili- 

 ties of this kind or research, was not limit- 

 ed to mechanical admixtures, the author 

 experimented with the view of obtaining 

 quantitative results upon the oil contain- 

 ed in cloves. For this purpose a small ex" 



