114 THE MICROSCOPE. 



bodies had passed into its interior; it then extended itself out under 

 the body, so as to raise the latter up from the slide. The body now 

 occupied the position of a ball in a cup and began slowly to sink, 

 into the corpuscle. Suddenly, however, it slipped out, rolled off of 

 the corpuscle and fell upon the slide with a little rebound. . The 

 white corpuscle now apparently gave up the attack and moved 

 rapidly away. 



The whole time of observation was about three and a half 

 hours. The instrument was a one-quarter inch objective (Tolles), a 

 one inch eye-piece and an amplifier in the tube. 



I do not desire to theorize nor draw inferences on this behavior 

 of the white corpuscle, but simply record the facts as I saw them. 



BACTERIA. 



Bacteria, whether significant of disease or decline of health, are 

 found more or less numerous in everything we eat and drink. The 

 germs or spores of many kinds known as termo, lineola, tenue, spiril- 

 lum, vibriones, etc., exist in almost infinite numbers, some of the 

 smallest are too small to be seen by the highest powers, which being 

 lodged in all vegetable and animal substances, spring into life and 

 develop very rapidly under favorable circumstances. They devefop 

 most rapidly when decomposition commences, and seem to indicate 

 the degree or activity of that decomposition, also hastening the 

 same. They are found most numerous in the fasces and usually 

 fully developed in the fresh evacuations of persons of all ages. 

 They may be seen plainly under a thin glass with high powers 

 with strong or clear light when the material is much diluted with 

 water. 



These bacteria appear almost as numerously, yet more slowly in 

 urine, either upon exposure to air or when freshly evacuated when 

 the general health of the individual is declining or any tendency to 

 decomposition. A diagnosis can be aided very greatly by a study of 

 these bacteria, as they indicate or determine the vitality, vigor and 

 purity of the system, whether more or less subject to disease, even 

 before any signs of disease appear. They seem to pre-indicate the 

 hold of the life force on the material and always appear when that 

 force is broken. Their relative quantity found in faeces is as a 



