The Microscope. 25 



bilobed wheel of the philodinidce can be homologized with the ciliated 

 band of the trocho- sphere; (2) that the anterior end of the out- 

 stretched body is homologous with the " Scheitel-platte," and (3) that 

 the brain of the rotifer arises partly from separation from the 

 Scheitelplatte. and partly from immigration of primitively peripheral 

 ganglion-cells. — Am. Naturalist. 



Asiatic Cholera and Bujdwid's New Chemical Test for its 

 Bacillus. — After the addition of five to ten per cent, of ordinary 

 muriatic acid to a bouillon- culture of the comma- bacillus, there 

 develops in a few moments a rose-violet color, which rapidly 

 increases in intensity for half an hour. It then continues unchanged 

 for several days. The reaction occurs in bouillon-cultm-es ten or 

 twelve hours old, and in gelatine- cultures after twenty-four houi-s. 

 Heat increases the coloring to a marked degree. Bujdwid claims 

 that this chemical reaction is a special characteristic of the comma- 

 bacillus of Asiatic cholera, and distinguishes it sharply from other 

 similar forms of bacteria. — Medical Record. 



The Transformation of Barley in Process op Malting. — 

 Frankhausen has investigated this process microscopically {Deut. 

 Chem. Ztg.), and describes the consecutive stages as follows : 



" The seed at first takes up a certain amount of water, when a 

 rise in temperature takes place with absorption of oxygen and evolution 

 of carbon dioxide, a kind of respiration setting in with a considerable 

 increase of temperature. Simultaneously the walls of the cells con- 

 taining starch are broken down, and the starch bodies are rendered 

 friable, so that they may be crushed between the fingers; the starch 

 granules themselves, however, undergo no further change. What 

 breaks down the cell tissue and causes the change in the starch 

 cannot be micro-organisms, as intimated by Ducleaux and Pasteur, 

 since none of these could be found, but the author discovered that 

 besides carbonic acid, strange organic acids were formed, and that 

 by treating malt with an alkali considerable formic acid was produced. 

 This acid, as was found by experiment, converts starch into glucose, 

 similarly to sulphuric acid, and also dissolves the cell tissue, which, 

 though consisting of cellulose, more difficultly soluble than starch, 

 yet are permeated by the acid, owing to the distribution of starch 

 over the whole structure. In practice, for this reason, in malting 

 the process is interrupted when the tissues are dissolved, in order 

 that the formic acid produced may be sufiicient to transform the 

 starch into sugar." — Western Druggist. 



