THE MICROSCOPE. 23 
also alter starch. The gastric juice is much like pancreatic juice, 
but is distinguished by the presence of tripsin, and by the fact that 
it apparently works better in the presence of weak acids. The cells 
of the typhlosole not only absorb the digestive juices, but they also 
have a digestive function much like that of the pancreas of the 
vertebrates. Other observations relate to the histology of the 
epidermis, the pigment material, the cesophageal glands and, the 
cale-glands. Some notes are made on the distribution of the 
Russian species, two of which occur even in the Lena Delta. 
Human anv Animau Bioop.—Dr. Cevera asserts that human may 
be distinguished from animal blood by the following method: If the 
blood be mixed with a little bile, small crystals are formed which are 
of different shapes in different species of animals. In man, it is 
claimed they are right-angled prisms ; in the horse, cubes ; in pigs, 
right-angled prisms, very similar to those seen in shomboids ; in 
sheep, shomboidal plates ; in dogs, the same as seen in human blood, ~ 
and in chickens more or less regular cubes.— Medical Record. 
Even here there seems to be no help in deciding that most diffi- 
cult and frequent problem, the differentiation of human from dog 
blood. 
OpseRVATIONS ON Pyocentc Bacrerta, Parke.*—All the staphy- 
lococcus forms, including the pyogenes albus and aureus and the 
citreus albus and flavus, grow more rapidly than the streptococcus; 
they grow better in the absence of oxygen ; they more easily enter 
the blood-current, and are, by it, more quickly disseminated ; thus, 
phlegmons, caused by staphylococci, pursue a more acute course, 
both in time and in intensity of disturbance, and the various cases of 
septiczemia and pyzemia developed in consequence thereof, seem to 
be of a more rapid or overwhelming character. In cultures, the 
staphylococci remain active for along time ; old cultures of them 
emit a well-marked odor, much like that of starch paste, as Krantz- 
feld has noticed, and this odor can be frequently recognized in old 
dressings which have become saturated with pus. The streptococcus 
forms grow more slowly, seem to require more oxygen, and manifest 
a disposition for the lymphatic vessels, rather than for the blood 
vessels ; it is well known that the streptococcus erysipelatosus is 
propagated mainly in the lymphatic current. 
* Phil. Med. News, Dec. 1, 1888. 
