THE MICROSCOPE. 229 



It is characterized at the debut by a great desire to be spoken 

 of in the scientific world, accompanied by a slight degree of fever 

 and a strong resolution to discover by the aid of the microscope 

 certain mobile corpuscles in the blood or other liquids of patients 

 suffering from the most diverse maladies. 



The desire is soon followed by acts calculated to satisfy the 

 special craving. 



In the end the presence of corpuscles is averred in impaludism, 

 measles, scarlatina, even in mumps, and the minute organisms are 

 charged with ail the crimes imputable to each pathological in- 

 dividuality. 



But if, perchance, several individuals under the influence of 

 this form of mania should concentrate their attention on one and 

 the same disease, they are very apt to describe widely differing 

 microbes. 



But this mischance affects them very little, the noise raised by 

 their discovery, and the discussion it provokes, brings their names 

 before the scientific world, and that generally suffices for the cure 

 of the disease; but relapses are frequent. Microphobia is more fre- 

 quently observed than the other, and its ravages increase in propor- 

 tion to the discoveries made by the microbomaniacs. The married 

 physician, with the constant fear of microbes before his eyes, dreads 

 the approach of his children until he has removed his outer clothing 

 and made antiseptic ablutions. But happily carbolic acid has pene- 

 trated to the most distant climes, and enables the microphobic phy- 

 sician to return to his family circle. — Philadelphia Med. and Surg. 

 Reporter. 



Who Would not be a Doctor? — Quite a number of our 

 young men are studying for the medical profession. We do not 

 wish to deter them from this laudable pursuit, for a physician's call- 

 ing is one of the most honorable, ennobling, humanizing, and useful 

 in the world. But all is not gold that glitters, and the following are 

 some of the sweets of a doctor's life: If he visits a few of his patients 

 when they are well, it is to get his dinner; and if he does not do so, 

 it is because he cares more for the fleece than the flock. If he goes to 

 a synagogue regularly, it is because he has nothing else to do; if he 

 doesn't go, it is because he has no respect for the Sabbath nor 

 religion. If he speaks reverently of Judaism, he is a hypocrite; if 



