THE MICROSCOPE. 155 
which a ee rod of the Baletanee ie be drawn is cerhented. ak this 
Pane The author had also ee on many minerals with 
more or less success. Ruby, sapphire and fleur-spar could not well 
be drawn into fibers; but quartz, angite and feldspar gave very satis- 
factory results. Garnet, when treated at low temperatures, yielded 
fibers exhibiting the most beautiful colors. From quartz fibers less 
than > yas97 Of an inch in diameter had been obtained. The thread 
cannot be drawn directly from the crystal, but the latter has to be 
slowly heated, fused, and cast in a thin rod. Quartz fiber seems to 
be free from the torsional fatigue so evident in glass and metallic 
fibers, and is therefore valuable for instruments requiring torsional 
control. The tenacity of such fibers is about fifty tons on the square 
inch. 
Tanorance in Mepicat Microscory.*—There is strict truth in the 
remarks of Dr. James Tyson in a paper on the “ Relation of Albumin- 
aria to Life Insurance,’ when he says: “Ihave known men with 
good medical education say that casts were present in a given specimen, 
when there were none; certain granular aggregations having been 
mistaken for them.” And again: ‘‘ Take, for example, so simple a 
matter as examining for tube casts, which may be regarded as almost 
the easiest sort of microscopical work, yet how few medical examin- 
ers are competent to make such examinations. Most of them have no 
microscopes, and many who have them use them so rarely that their 
opinion, whether positive or negative as to the presence of casts, 
cannot be relied upon.” 
NEWS AND NOTES. 
Tue Unrrep Srares commission for the investigation of hog 
cholera, consisting of Profs. Shakespeare, Burrill and Dr. Bollton, 
have gone to South Carolina to continue their labors. 
“Tue Strance Marxines on Mars ” is the title of an illustrated 
article to appear in the May Popular Science Monthly. The author, 
Mr. Garrett P. Serviss, tells how these markings have been ex- 
plained, and shows the bearing of what is known about this planet 
upon the question whether or not it is the abode of life. 
Mr. Putte Henry Gosss, the distinguished English naturalist 
who died on the 28d of last August, was born at Worcester, April 6, 
" *Phila. Medical News, November 17, 1887, 
