1885.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 25 



into Ehrlich's solution of fuchsine, which is composed of eleven 

 parts of saturated alcoholic solution of fuchsine and one hundred 

 parts of aniline-water. 



2. Decolor for thirty or sixty seconds in the nitro-alcoholic 

 mixture. 



3. Dip the sections for two or three minutes in aqueous solu- 

 tion of methylene-blue. 



4. Dehydrate in absolute alcohol three or four minutes. 



5. Transfer to oil of bergamot, and examine with homogeneous- 

 immersion lens. The lepra-bacilli will be seen colored red, 

 while the tubercle bacilli will not be marked at all. 



THE CHOLERA BACILLUS. 



L. Schoney, M. D., said: " The study of pathogenic bacteria is 

 one of great importance. The views of Dr. Koch, a pioneer in 

 this work, and one of the keenest of investigators, have met with 

 much opposition, and this opposition has sharply assailed his 

 latest promulgated discovery of a micro-organism specific of 

 Asiatic cholera, — the comma-bacillus. Dr. Lewis stated that 

 this form is found in the saliva of perfectly healthy persons, and 

 Drs. Finkler and Prior asserted its existence in cases of cholera 

 nostras ; but Dr. Koch has shown that these gentlemen did not 

 make the requisite pure culture. The curved bacilli in saliva 

 and of cholera nostras are longer, more slender, and less blunt at 

 the ends, and, more important still, do not grow in an alkaline 

 peptone gelatine. Only the bacillus of Asiatic cholera develops 

 in that. The crucial test recently made in the Berlin Hygienic 

 Laboratory, of inoculating with the cholera bacillus, was repeat- 

 edly successful." 



Dr. Britton : " The researches of the Rev. W. H. Dallinger on 

 the ' Least and Lowest Living Things ' ^ are of great interest as 

 demonstrating that, however similar to one another these forms 

 may appear, their difference will certainly be detected through 

 a study of their life-history." 



Meeting of December iqth, i88 



The President, Mr. C. Van Brunt, in the chair. 

 Twenty-eight persons present. 



»See " Nature," Oct. 83d, and Oct. 30th, 1884. 



