1164 Journal of Applied Microscopy 



paraffin block is carefully squared ; but, for this work, the object-holder should 

 be steadied by a weight of five or six pounds (W). 



While the microtome can by no means take the place of such a splendid 

 instrument as the Bausch ^: Lomb " Student," yet it is a practical and serviceable 

 apparatus, and its usefulness has been demonstrated in everyday histological 

 work. Irwin LaVerne Powers. 



Randolph, Mass. 



The Study of Bacteria in the Public Schools. 



The highest aims in " municipal housekeeping " can never be attained by 

 Boards of Health or by Departments of Street Cleaning alone, however efficient 

 these organizations may be. Unless these city departments are backed by a 

 strong, intelligent public sentiment we shall experience nothing better than spor- 

 adic reform in the cleaning of our streets, in the construction of tenement houses, 

 and in the general care for the public health. When conditions get sufficiently 

 bad in a community, it is comparatively easy to arouse the voters and roll in a 

 reform administration by big majorities. But alas ! we soon tire of our attempts 

 at public virtue, we reverse our votes at the next election, and sink back into 

 easy toleration of filth and its resulting disease. One might indeed become 

 pessimistic with reference to the future of our cities were it not true that democ- 

 racy possesses a most powerful means of developing a public sentiment which may 

 be at once intelligent and lasting. Gathered in our schools of to-day are the boys 

 and girls who will be the voters and the home-makers of to-morrow. Hence to the 

 teacher, especially in the public schools, is given the opportunity to exert a 

 telling influence in developing the better city of the future. 



The discoveries in bacteriology within a few years have made new sciences 

 of surgery, medicine, and sanitation. Epidemics of typhoid fever have ceased 

 to be regarded as " a dispensation of an all-wise Providence," for we have come 

 to know that the presence of this disease usually means a contaminated water 

 supply or imperfect sewerage. Scientific men have learned, too, how to check 

 the ravages of yellow fever and cholera, and even consumption is found to be a 

 preventable disease. To make these discoveries of practical use, however, 

 this knowledge must be possessed by a large majority of the citizens in a com- 

 munity, and the most effective means of attaining this end is by educating the 

 pupils in our public schools. With this object in view, in the Peter Cooper High 

 School, New York City, we devote considerable time in the course in biology to 

 the study of bacteria, yeast, and moulds. 



In this study, it is necessary at the very first to impress the pupil with some 

 idea of the omnipresence of these micro-organisms in everyday life ; and for 

 this purpose an experiment performed by the boy or the girl is always more tell- 

 ing than a talk by the teacher or a dozen pages of description. We begin with 

 the study of a hay infusion. The work is done by each pupil at home, and the 

 report presented at the next recitation. The following account is selected from 

 the one hundred and fifty papers received from the first year pupils : 



