FUG THE MICROSCOPE. 
example, 780 just after the fall, against 962 about three hours later). 
The fact is of interest from a sanitary point of view, as Dr. Poehl’s 
researches furnish an additional proof that exposure of microbes to 
low temperatures does not destroy their vitality; at least in certain 
species of micro-organisms. In many countries, such as Russia or 
Sweden, snow forms, so to speak, a natural ground or soil during 
several months of the year, receiving excrementitious matter and 
every possible kind of refuse and filth. In spring, when the snow 
melts, it is imbibed by the soil, carrying with it all the polluting 
matters referred to. Hence an interesting question arises: Are such 
microbes as happen to be present in these matters in any way chang- 
ed by their contact with snow, or not? This point can be deter- 
mined only by further bacterioscopic researches. 
A contribution to the subject has just been published in the 
Vratch, No. 37, 1888, p. 727, by Dr. F. G. Ianovsky, of Kiev, who 
has examined bacterioscopically, under Prof. K. G. Tritshel’s guid- 
ance, a February snow in its purest state, collected both immediately 
and from one to three days after its fall. This observer has found: 
1. That even when collected during its fall, snow is invariably found 
to contain living bacteria in considerable numbers, varying from 34 
to 463 per one cubic centimetre of snow-water. 2. That their num- 
ber does not decrease from exposure of snow to low temperatures 
(—16° C.) for several days. 3. That the following three species of 
microbes are met with constantly in great numbers: a, a large diplo- 
coccus composed of ovoid cocci, endowed with energetic motion, and 
characterized by its rapidly liquefying jelly; the test-tube culture on 
the third day, forming greenish colonies along the track of the 
needle, assumes the shape of a funnel-like sac with a whitish floceu- 
lent deposit, while on the fifth, the whole medium becomes liquified, 
the precipitate sinking to the bottom ; on agar a pale grayish streak 
is formed at the site of innoculation, on potato a fairly thick white 
film ; 6, small sized cocci often arranged two and two, energetically 
mobile, and slowly growing on jelly without liquefying the medium, 
the growth proceeding slowly along the track of the needle in the 
shape of a narrow strip consisting of non-coalescing minute points 
of a yellow color, while on the surface the colony is seen as a gray- 
ish-white, circular, slightly prominent patch with somewhat fringed 
edges ; on agar the coccus forms a white streak with sinuous edges, 
on potato a gray film with a brownish tint; c, very large cocci lique- 
fying jelly as late as three weeks after inoculation, and growing 
along the track of the needle in the form of a sharply defined streak 
of a beautiful pink color, with a slightly elevated pink circular patch 
