THE MICROSCOPE. 



of food adulterated as this was more than fifty per cent., and the de- 

 fendent was fined 40s and costs. 



MICROSCOPIC TESTS FOR POISONS. 



PROF. ROSSB.\CH has just published, in the Vienna Klinische 

 Wochenschrift, some remarkable delicate tests for the presence 

 of poisons when they are in too minute (juantities to answer to any 

 chemical tests. 



As small animals, like frogs, mice, etc., are known to be very 

 susceptible to the action of certain of the poisonous alkaloids, so this 

 fact is taken advantage of and very weak solutions introduced into 

 their circulation. Delicate and wonderful as the tests are as applied 

 to frogs, etc., still Prof. Rossbach gives far more delicate ones. A 

 drop of water containing infusoria is placed on a glass slide and ex- 

 amined uncovered. The infusoria are examined carefully as to 

 size, form, color, etc., then a drop of the solution is placed just to 

 the edge of the fluid containing the infusoria. If organic 

 poisons be present the infusoria are instantaneously destroyed, 

 becoming a formless sediment. He startles us with his figures. "If 

 a drop of water containing infusoria and weighing .001 grain be used 

 as a test the quantity of strychnine required to cause remarkable 

 changes will be .00000006 of a grain. In this way yxooVFFir of a 

 grain of atropine can be detected." Thus, he says, if the .stomach of 

 a person poisoned by strychnia contains a litre of f^uid and only ^ 

 of a grain of the alkaloid, a single drop of this fluid will contain 40 

 times as much strychnine as necessary for the test. 



INFANTILE DIARRHa<:A. 



DR. GUERIN says, in the Medical Record, that he successfully 

 meets this trouble by adding half a teaspoonful of powdered 

 charcoal to a bottle of milk. The greenish stools change to their 

 normal color and increase in consistence. 



The milk used is diluted with one-half or one-third of its bulk 

 with sweetened water. 



