1893 SOME NEW BOOKS. 151 



The best way of coping with many pathogenic bacteria appears 

 to be to let dayhght in upon them ; it has been stated that a few 

 minutes of direct sunhght are enough to kill the deadly bacillus of 

 consumption, and that even diffused daylight is fatal in a longer or 

 shorter time according to its intensity. Unfortunately, this mode of 

 treatment is hardly applicable when the bacilli have got into the 

 body ; but they might be lessened in numbers, and the danger of 

 infection thus diminished, by thorough ventilation of suspected 

 localities. An open drain is neither pleasant to the eye nor 

 agreeable to another sense which largely comes into play where 

 bacteria abound, but it is from many points of view more healthy 

 than a close drain, where, hidden from the sun's rays, the fellest 

 varieties of bacteria can multiply unchecked. For practical pur- 

 poses, too, any mode of dealing with typhoid is very important ; 

 it is an exceedingly common disease, and there must be few people 

 who have not lost some friend or relative by its means ; the germs 

 of this complaint are killed by sunlight of four to seven hours' 

 duration. 



To those wlio have not followed recent bacteriological work, 

 some of the figures given in this book will be surprising. One 

 knew ever so many years ago that the large spirilla had a flagellum 

 at each end by which they moved ; now it is known that most 

 kinds — even some of the most minute — are provided with a bunch 

 of these vibratile processes ; and this accounts, perhaps, for the rapid 

 progress through an organ, or a system, as the case may be, of some 

 infectious complaint ; the typhoid bacilli from the great number of flagella 

 which spring here and there from the organism are called "spider 

 cells." As is well known, many different kinds of bacilli — alike enough 

 on a superficial inspection — can be distinguished by their different 

 reaction to staining fluids; and this important means of detecting a 

 given bacillus is impressed upon the mind of the student in the work 

 before us by the use of differently coloured figures in the text. We 

 have, indeed, nothing but praise for the illustrations, which are not 

 only good but abundant. 



The word " Bacteriology " is used in the book before us in a sense 

 rather wider than that usually applied to it, and the author says 

 something about other kinds of unicellular parasites. There is a 

 growing tendency to ascribe cancer to a Gregarine ; and the im- 

 portant researches of Drs. Riififer and Walker are justly quoted (by 

 the translator) in this connection — researches which have since been 

 confirmed upon the Continent. Gregarines are such abundant 

 parasites in the lower animals (insects, earthworms, etc.), v/here their 

 existence appears to be attended with such slight inconvenience to 

 their hosts, that it is, perhaps, remarkable how extremely dangerous 

 they are in the form of cancer in the human species. F. E. B. 



On English Lagoons : Being an Account of the Voyage of Two Amateur Wherry- 

 men on the Norfolk and Suflolk Rivers and Broads. By. P. H. Emerson. 

 8vo. Pp. 298. London : David Nutt, 1893. Price 7s. 6d. 



We took up this volume with a feeling by no means favourable to the 

 author, for of late years we have been overwhelmed with books on 

 the Norfolk Broads. Mr. Emerson, however, has a far better claim 

 than most to write on the subject, for he has lived the whole year 

 round on the broads, and can describe them as they appear in a 



