Tue Microscops. 149 
Without taking further time, therefore, to review the gen- 
eral behavior of the poison during its migrations, we venture 
the prediction that when found to the satisfaction of all, as I 
believe it will be, the poison of cholera will prove to be pos- 
sessed of self-propelling powers such as do not belong to any 
bacillus, but which harmonize with the animalculz hypothesis. 
And since the English Commission, headed by Dr. Klein, has 
failed to identify the comma bacillus as the etiological agent of 
cholera, as claimed by Dr. Koch, it is at least presumable that 
more satisfactory results may be predicted when microscopy 
cultivation and inoculation shall be pushed with special refer- 
ence to the animalcular theory. 
As to other infections I may mention briefly that those of 
yellow fever, milk sickness and typhus fever are believed to be 
swallowed with the food, and hence reside in the atmosphere as 
well asin the alimentary tract—that those of measles, scarlet 
fever and whooping cough are thought to be inhaled and hence 
reside in the air passages as well as in the atmosphere, and that 
those of small-pox, diphtheria and erysipelas may be inocu- 
lated, and hence may be looked for in the blood. 
When so much precision of manipulation and care is 
required as in the advanced microscopy employed in these 
studies, and where appearances are so liable to misrepresenta- 
tion, it is fortunate that modern science has brought forth a 
ready means of verification in micro-photography. The rays of 
light are no respectors of persons nor of theories, and no 
delusions of sight nor intellect can pervert the faithful evidence 
of a photograph. Some of these I shall show by, projection 
to-night, the subjects for the most part histological. In some 
instances the amplification is three thousand, and upon the 
canvas the images will be enlarged many more diameters. 
WHAT MAKES VINEGAR SHARP? 
Some people have imagined that the sharpness of vinegar 
is occasioned by the eels striking their pointed tails against the 
tongue and palate; but it is very certain that the sourest vine- 
gar hath none of those eels, and that its pungency is entirely 
owing to the pointed figure of its salts, which float therein.— 
Geo. Adams, 1747. 
