254 The Microscope. 



over night, or until it is convenient to wipe them. When ready 

 to do this, take out each slide separately, and give it a good, 

 hard wipe with a piece of muslin or domestic, and then polish 

 with another clean bit of the same stuff. Try the plan once, 

 and you will never use any other. A jar such as is used for 

 preserved fruits, holding from 12 to 14 fluid-ounces, is just the 

 thing. Slides thoroughly cleaned thus, possess a quality which, 

 in making glycerin or aqueous mounts, is absolutely invaluable. 

 While they are optically and practically clean, such slides 

 retain upon their surface an exceedingly tenuous film of resin- 

 ous matter that prevents water or glycerin from attaching 

 itself to the surface, and the consequence is that the surplus of 

 such fluid, after a cell is closed, rolls off the slide without 

 moistening it in the least. Cement, on the contrary, attaches 

 itself with extraordinary firmness and evenness. — Dr. James, 

 in the National Druggist. 



THE KOCH COMMA-BACILLUS. 



This much-discussed little body receives still further atten- 

 tion in a lengthy article in the Medical News, August 29, 1885, 

 by Dr. Hermann M. Biggs. After covering the ground very 

 thoroughly, the author terminates his paper with the following 

 conclusions : 



1. That Koch's claims as to the discovery of a germ pecu- 

 liar to cholera, which possesses certain morphological and bio- 

 logical characteristics, that differentiate it sharply from all 

 other germs, have stood the test of investigation by many 

 observers, and remain yet to be disproved. 



2. It is acknowledged by all investigators, without excep- 

 tion, that the Koch comma bacillus is always found in Asiatic 

 cholera in greater or less numbers, and that it is absolutely 

 diagnostic of cholera, whether it bears any etiological relation 

 to the disease or not. 



3. That, although it cannot be considered as absolutely 

 proven that the Koch comma bacillus is the cause of cholera; 

 yet its constant presence in this disease, and its absence under 

 all other conditions, its relation to the course and intensity of 

 the disease processes, and its peculiar life history, constitute 

 very strong presumptive evidence in this direction, 



