90 THE MICROSCOPE. . June, 



slide that a subscriber indignantly returned, Prof. Lighten sends 

 it and says: "The mounting medium was not hard when sent 

 and the cover-glass was pushed from place and by some means 

 a little fiber of wool is under the cover-glass. This must have 

 hapi)ened when the slide was broken in the mail bag." Surely, 

 Prof. Lighton must have learned before sending to us this last 

 package that his method of packing was bad and responsible 

 for much harm. And still he does not abandon it! 



The slide certainly contains some stained diatoms and an 

 enormous amount of foreign matter. No wonder the subscriber 

 caricatured it as "stained dirt." He had a right to expect for 

 fifty cents something very different from what he received. 

 Added to these facts, he complains that when he wrote to 

 Lighton complaining, the latter was exceedingly dillatory in 

 answering. 



Prof. Lighton says that he had no trouble in selling out the 

 whole lot, another proof of the patience and good nature of 

 Americans, since only one subscriber has written to make com- 

 plaint. The money could have been spent far more profitably 

 in our opinion. 



Tuberculosis transmitted. — On May 8, 1895, Dr. James 

 M. Byron, a well-known bacteriologist, died in the N. Y. City 

 Hospital of tubercular consumption. More than a year ago, he 

 contracted the disease in the Loomis Laboratory while examin- 

 ing the tuberculous sputum of patients. He was a skilled 

 microscopist and made many examinations during the cholera 

 scare of 1891, as well as of suspected cases of tuberculosis. The 

 bacilli are harmless when examined wet but when dry many 

 float in the air and get into the lungs. He admitted months 

 ago that he had carelessly infected himself by allowing the dry 

 particles to get into his system. He discovered by his own ex- 

 aminations of his sputum that he had the disease and did not 

 at once drop all work and hurry to high, dry latitudes which 

 are known to be favorable to recovery. He sacrificed himself 

 at the post of duty at the early age of 34, having been born in 

 Peru, July 24, 1861. 



Subscribe for the Microscopical Journal, only $2.00. 



