58 THE MICROSCOPE. 



An insijj^ht into some o( the qualities of volcanic force is given 

 by Mr. Wymper in a lecture on his ascent of Chiniborazo and 

 Cotopaxi. In an eruption of Cotopaxi, which he witnessed, the 

 ashes rose in a column twenty thousand feet above the rim of the 

 crater, which was itself nearly twenty thousand feet high, and spread 

 over an area of many miles. On a microscopic examination the 

 fineness of the ashes was found to vary from 4,000 to 25,000 parti- 

 cles to the grain in weight. From observations of the area over 

 which the ash fell, Mr. Wymper calculated that at lea.st 2,000,000 

 tons must have been ejected in this one eruption. — £x. 



Microscopic Revelations. — As an illustration of the value of 

 a great many of the So-called discoveries, or revelations, made by the 

 microscope, we wish to call attention to the fact that a medical gen- 

 tleman, well known in Louisville, several years ago, was engaged in 

 the study of the appearance of the blood-cells from his own body. 

 He noticed that all the cells appear to be elliptical in form, that the 

 extremities, in the long diameter, were not sharply defined, where- 

 fore, he concluded that the blood-cells were not only elliptical in 

 form, but lenticular, or bi-convex shaped. His eyes growing weary, 

 and being the subject of astigmatism, he put on his glasses and at- 

 tempted the examination of another specimen of blood, taken from 

 a negro, when the cells appeared to be entirely round and depressed 

 in the center. He was about to conclude the blood of the Caucasian 

 might be recognized by its elliptical, the African by its round cells. 

 A defect of refraction in his own eyes was solely to blame for the 

 elliptical form of the cells seen. — Medical Herald. 



Mr. R. Warrington has called attention to the important part 

 which organic agents, including the "germ of decay," perform in 

 the purifiralion of foul waters changing organic into inorganic 

 matter. The whcjle process is in effect the work of 

 a number of independent organisms having different functions, 

 and following one another, each of which carries the opera- 

 tion through a particular stage. First, the fungi produces a 

 rapid oxidation of carbon; then the bacteria, of many kinds, and 

 having different action.s, liberate nitrogen in ammonia from nitro- 

 genous organic matter into inorganic carbonic and nitric acids. 



