The Mickoscope. 93 



but without any very marked result; because, although the phagocytes 

 do take the fungi into the interior of their cell, they cannot digest or 

 destroy them, on account of the thickness and vitality of the exterior 

 membrane of the fungi. Such is the case, for instance, with tuber- 

 cular or leprous bacilli. The tight between phagocytes and fungi is, 

 therefore, a common phenomenon, the differences in the result of it 

 being due to the fact that it is not always successful, and that it 

 does not always begin soon enough. Professor Metschinkoff draws 

 an interesting parallel between the inflammatory reaction in warm- 

 blooded animals, which consists in a migration of leucocytes out of 

 the blood-vessels, and the reaction which takes place in animals 

 which are deprived of blood, or of cold blood, in which there also 

 occurs a migration of phagocytes. In both cases the phagocytes 

 surround the foreign bodies and try to destroy them. The process 

 is quite similar to that which obtains in sponges for digestive pur- 

 poses; all foreign bodies, whether alimentary or not, are soon sur- 

 rounded by amoeboid cells, which are real phagocytes. This very 

 interesting theory of Metschinkoff throws an entirely new light on a 

 difficult question — that of the modus agendi of parasitic fungi — and 

 completes Pasteur's theoi'ies on that point, showing that parasitic 

 diseases are merely the result of intercellular warfare going on 

 between cellular fungi and elementary cells, very similar in many 

 points to ambseas and such organisms. — Pop. Sc. Neivs. 



NEWS AND NOTES. 



A microscopical society has been organized in Cincinnati. 



The enterprising publisher of Science, and The Swiss Cross has 

 undertaken a new monthly called The Puzzler. It is entirely 

 devoted to games of skill. 



The American Naturalist will hereafter be published by the 

 Leonard Scott Publication Co., of Philadelphia. We are glad to 

 notice that the Naturalist will di'op its sombre brown cover, and 

 hereafter wear a light blue color — not unlike that adopted by The 

 Microscope. 



In an exhaustive paper upon methods of measuring thin films, 

 Otto Wiener makes certain measurements of the thickness of a film 

 of silver which can just be perceived by the eye, and arrives at the 

 conclusion that 0.2 millionths of a millimeter is an upper limit of 

 the diameter of a silver molecule. — Scientific American. 



