322 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
and were generally of a pale whitish colour, and in size seldom ex- 
ceeding that of a common pin. The worms could best be preserved 
in alcohol. 
A meeting of the Society was held on Thursday evening, January 
18, with President Ashburner in the chair, 
Mr. J. R. Scupham presented a quantity of diatomaceous earth, 
obtained by him from Fort Hill, Los Angelos, which was examined 
somewhat hastily during the evening, and found to contain great 
quantities of fragments of Coscinodiscus. 
Mr. A. Burdick exhibited a slide motnted by him, showing a 
minute portion of the thallus of a marine Alge from Monterey Bay, 
to which was attached four species of diatoms. One of them, a Hyalo- 
discus, would not reveal its beautiful markings till quite a high power 
and proper illumination were brought to bear, when it surrendered, 
and its fine and well-defined lines reminded the observer of the lathe 
work on the back of a watch-case. 
Colonel Kinne exhibited several slides from his box of duplicates, 
one of antelope hair in balsam, showing the peculiar cellular structure 
of the investing membrane and enlarged medullary portion, which, 
though not new, attracted considerable attention. 
The annual meeting of the San Francisco Microscopical Society 
was held on Thursday evening, February 1, President Ashburner in 
the chair. 
As the only business of the evening was properly that pertaining 
to reports from retiring officers and the election of officers for the 
ensuing year, of course there was but little of scientific interest aside 
from that gathered in the report of the President, which was of con- 
siderable length, and furnished a very full and intelligent abstract of 
the doings of the Society for the past twelve months. 
Dr. A. M. Edwards was called upon, and, after some remarks of 
general interest, he spoke of the scourge now visiting our city in the 
shape of diphtheria, and after some extended remarks, which interested 
all present, particularly Doctors Mouser, Whitney and Burgess, he 
alluded to the great satisfaction with which he had treated many cases 
in the East, with a solution of salicylic acid, applied in the shape of a 
spray. He exhibited a series of drawings from the microscope, which 
faithfully portrayed fungoid organisms, illustrative of diphtheric 
growth. _ The salicylic acid invariably caused the disappearance of 
fungal matter, and ultimately the disease was checked. 
Mr. J. P. Moore, in this connection, spoke of the use, by himself, 
of the same acid as a remedy for poison oak, and though he had here- 
tofore been tortured by the poison on many occasions, by the use of 
salicylic acid he now could cure the disease without trouble, while, 
applied as a preventive, he was able to pursue the agile agaric, even 
under the protecting branches of the poisonous shrub itself, without 
fear of the consequences. 
