EDITORIAL. 7 



A comparison of foreign and American experiment stations makes 

 it apparent that the latter represent a distinct class of institutions, 

 which are the product of their environment. The exact prototypes 

 or counterparts of the American stations are not found in any other 

 country, either in scope, organization and management, or in relation 

 to the farming community and the promotion of agriculture in general. 

 The American station is an adaptation of the European station to the 

 conditions and requirements of this country, and thus presents many 

 unique features. 



Taken as a whole, the foreign experiment stations are working in 

 the main independently of one another, there being very little coop- 

 eration between the stations of any country or with the central depart- 

 ment of agriculture. Such cooperation, which is becoming more 

 extensive in this country each year, may be regarded as one of the 

 characteristic features of the American system. 



Attention is called to abstracts given elsewhere (pp. 15-17). describ- 

 ing the utilization of strongly condensed light at right angles to the 

 plane of the microscope. The mechanism of the microscope employed 

 does not differ from those in common use. the only difference being 

 in the sidewise illumination, so focussed as to render the smallest 

 particles visible by their reflecting the light thrown upon them. 



The early experiments with this new microscope indicated that it 

 was adapted to use only with liquids, and studies of glycogen, pro- 

 teids, urine, etc., of great exactness were reported. Recently" it has 

 been found to be adapted to studying living organisms, and especially 

 bacteria. It is claimed that with the focal illumination, micro-organ- 

 isms one-fourth of a micromillimeter in size can be readily distin- 

 guished in form, without any preliminary cultivation, staining or other 

 process. 



Of course only objects having a different refractive index from that 

 of the medium in which they are suspended can be viewed with this 

 new form of instrument, but with it it seems possible to open up an 

 entirely new field of investigations in physiological chemistry, bacte- 

 riology, and related branches. 



a British Med. Jour., 1904, No. 2275, Epit, p. 20. 



