86 The Microscope. 



bit of absorbent cotton into it, to keep out all foreign substances, 

 and allow the apparatus to stand undisturbed for twenty-four hours 

 or longer, during which the deposit contained in the column of 

 sediment falls to the bottom of the smaller tube. At the end of this 

 time I close the upper end of the smaller tube firmly with a finger, 

 withdraw it carefully fi'om the test tube, and then allow the two or 

 three di-ops nearest its point to run out on a slide, in two or three 

 places, cover them properly with thin glass, and put them under the 

 microscope. 



Pekenyi's Fluid.— M. de Castellarnau gives the formula of 

 Perenyi's Fluid: Nitric acid, 4 vols. ; chromic acid, 8 vols. ; alcohol, 

 3 vols. This has been found excellent in preparing eggs and 

 embryos, especially of the salmonidae. The eggs should remain four 

 or five hours in the fluid, and are then passed through several alco- 

 hols up to 70 p. c, or, if to be preserved, alcohol absolute. Dr. 

 Perenyi advises staining at the time the eggs are in the alcohol, by 

 adding an aniline dye to the spirits. Borax-carmine may also be 

 used. — Journal de Micrographie. 



ABSTRACTS 



THE MICROBE OF MALARIA. 



Through the careful observations of the blood of over 

 fifty cases of malarial fever by Dr. Osier, the peculiar bodies 

 as found and described by Laveran, Marchiafava, Celli, Golgi, Stern- 

 berg and Councelman, seem to settle the fact that we have found 

 at last a microbe peculiar to malaria. He described the bodies 

 as occurring inside the red corpuscles and free in the plasma. The 

 intracellular form appears as either a hyaline or a darkly pig- 

 mented body, filling one-third or one-half of the corpuscle and has 

 slow but distinct amoeboid movements. The hiiemoglobin of the cor- 

 puscle is gradually destroyed by the organism and the stroma grows 

 pale and finally colorless. The amoeboid movements are readily 

 demonstrated with a high-power objective. 



The forms occurring outside the corpuscle are still more remark- 

 able. These are (1) small, circular, pigmented bodies; (2) curious, 

 crescent-shaped organisms; and (3) an extraordinary flaggellate 

 body resembling an infusorium. The pigmented crescents are much 

 easier demonstrated than the amoeboid bodies. They appear only in 

 the later stages of the disease. 



