2202 Journal of Applied Microscopy 



ing the stain with a suitable liquid and measuring the diameter of the corpuscles 

 remaining intact. In practice this method furnished no means of distinguishing 

 the nucleated and elliptical corpuscles of birds from the discoidal ones of the 

 mammals. 



It may sometimes, however, furnish a means of distinguishing human blood 

 corpuscles from very small ones, such as occur in the kid ; but human blood 

 can never be distinguished by this method from that of the dog or rabbit. 



The method proposed by Uhlenluth, which is based upon Bordet and Tchis- 

 towitch's use of precipitant serums, is one of extreme delicacy. The authors 

 have studied the precipitant serums from an entirely different point of view, and 

 have been led to make a number of interesting investigations from the medico- 

 legal standpoint. The most important of these experiments relates to the spe- 

 cific characters of the precipitant serums. All authorities agree that, with the 

 exception of certain cases in which confusion exists between the blood of closely 

 related animals, these serums are strictly specific. For example : the precipit- 

 ant serum for human blood precipitates only human blood and the blood of apes, 

 and no other that could possibly be confused with them. The use of precipitant 

 serums is founded upon this specific characteristic. But from the investigations 

 of Linossier and Lemoine it appears that this characteristic does not exist. These 

 authors have however, established the fact that the precipitant serum for human 

 blood precipitates also the blood of cattle, horses, dogs, sheep, pigs, guinea-pigs, 

 chickens, etc., and the reaction is incomparably more delicate with human blood. 

 It is possible to avoid, in advance, the possibility of error which arises from 

 this source, by conducting the experiment only in diluted blood solutions. A 

 solution of serum (one in one thousand) has always been found to be precipi- 

 tated by the corresponding active serum, and never by any other. This possi- 

 bility of error being guarded against, the new method of investigation into the 

 source of blood by the use of precipitant serum will furnish invaluable aid to 

 legal medicine. A. Girauld. 



Trans, by Eleanor L. Lattimore. 



Rohnstein. Eine einfache Konservirungsme- rj.^^^^ ^^^ ^ ^^^^ ^^j^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^ 



thode fur die Zwecke der khnisch-mikro- ° 



skopischen Diagnostik. Fort. d. Med., satisfactory means of preserving or- 

 No. 2, 1902. ganic material containing cellular ele- 



ments and bacteria, like sputum, etc., for subsequent microscopic study, which 

 will preserve the morphological elements indefinitely. Various plans have 

 proved more or less unsatisfactory, and Rhonstein has developed a method by 

 which the material is first sedimented, after which there is added to it a material 

 which has the power of fixing and preserving the albuminoid holding material. 

 This avoids the difficulty of all manipulation and preserves the morphological 

 elements uninjured. The material used by the author for such preservation is 

 a glycerine solution of formaldehyde, and he has used it successfully in the 

 preservation of sputum, urine, feces, and the contents of the stomach. 



H. W. C. 



