DEVELOPMENT OF THE GERM THEORY, 29 



medical men to attend to us, it must surely be rather serious ! 

 And they do not cure us." Well, if all these medical men will 

 believe in the germ theory of infection, that these germs do not 

 exist only in the brains of those who discover them, and if they 

 will thoroughly act up to such a belief, the national condition may 

 be greatly changed for the better — if not by doing away with all 

 the ills that flesh is heir to, at least by considerably diminishing 

 the number of those which are due to infection. 



Notes and Reflections, by Sir Henry Holland ; Von Ziemssen's 

 Cyciopcedia, Vol. I. ; Bacteria afid their Products (Wood head) ; 

 The Realm of the Microbe (Priestley) : Fid?lic Health Problems 

 (Sykes); Surgical Principles (Lenn.) ; Micro-Organisms and 

 Disease (Flugge). 



ZTecbnoloQ^ of tbe Diatomace^. 



By M. J. Tempere.* 

 Chapter II. (conti?iued). 



SPECIAL TREATMENTS.- SOUNDINGS. 



SOUNDINGS are certainly the materials that offer to Diatom- 

 ists the greatest interest and at the same time all the chances 

 of disappointment. 1 say the greatest interest, because 

 we have there to deal with species actually living in our seas and 

 lakes ; all those who have attempted the cleaning and examina- 

 tion of Soundings will realise what I mean when I say there is 

 much that tends towards disappointment. I advise the beginner, 

 therefore, to lay in a stock of patience, and not to be discouraged 

 if the result of his attempts should be absolutely nothing, for 

 unless the materials on which he is about to operate have been 

 warranted to contain Diatoms, it will very likely prove that seven 

 or eight times out of ten there is nothing to find, and that his 

 time has been lost. 



A rapid, off-hand examination of a sounding, especially if you 

 have only a small quantity to operate on, may very often show no 

 trace of Diatoms, though the material does really contain them, 



* Translated from Le Diatomiste. 



