THE MICROSCOPE. 



85 



to distinguish one from the other by the general appearance of the 

 field, but not from any characteristics that can be definitely de- 

 scribed. The artificial product possesses a certain grain, especially 

 when examined with a power of 1000 diameters or more, which is 

 not resolved into a minutely, crystalline structure, but which, never- 

 theless, shows some indications of a crystalline arrangement of the 

 particles. Such an appearance is not to be observed in butter. — 

 American Monthly Microscopical Journal. 



The Bacteria Fallacy Illustrated. — The following cuts 

 illustrate and expose the great bacteria fallacy, and show the three 

 classified forms of so-called bacteria, in diphtheria, to be nothing 

 more than the three stages of the fibrillation of fibrin, of which the 

 diphtheritic membranes are composed. 



The mis-named micrococci, or 

 tpheiical bacteria of diphtheria. 



The mis-named rod-like 

 bacteria of diphtheria. 



The mis-named spiral 

 bacteria of diphtheria. 





Granules of fbrin, or the first 

 stage of its tibriilation. 



Fibrils of fibrin, or the second 

 stage of its fibrillation. 



Spirals of fibrin, or the contract- 

 ive stage of its fibrils. 



All the membranes of diphtheria are wholly, or almost wholly, 

 composed of fibrin. 



This fibrin is thrown out into the throat, or upon other parts, 

 because it is in excess in the blood in this disease. 



Were such excess not expelled from the blood-vessels, every 

 severe case of diphtheria would soon prove fatal, from the fibrilla- 

 tion of this superfluous fibrin into large clots in the heart or pulmo- 

 nary artery, that would instantly take life, or into smaller clots that 

 would be driven along through the aorta into smaller arteries that 

 would arrest them, when they would cause embolism and death in 

 that way. 



