I20 THE MICROSCOPE. 



glass before inverting it over the cell, just as in the slide described 

 by Mr. J. Deby. — Monthly Microscopiiol Journal. 



Adulteration of Food. — The Telegram of Toronto gives the 

 following in reference to this subject : There appears to be a good 

 deal of adulteration of food carried on. principally milk, coffee, tea, 

 spices and butter. Out of 226 samples analyzed by Prof. Ellis, he 

 found that fifty-eight were adulterated. Many of the adulterations 

 were harmless, the object being to make the quantity weigh heavier. 

 In the case of milk, it appears that the practice of watering it is very 

 common, and there really seems no remedy left for the abuse but to 

 require the milkmen to drive their cows around to their customers' 

 doors, as they do in Cuba, and milk the requisite quantity in the 

 presence of the purchaser. Those good people who have been pay- 

 ing for coffee, appear to have been drinking chicory, while the tea 

 drinkers have been regaling themselves with Prussian blue and other 

 deleterious stuff. Altogether, the public seem to be badly used. 

 There is water in the milk, chicory in the coffee, Prussian blue in 

 the tea, flour in the cloves, an excess of salt and water in the butter, 

 flour and cassia in the cinnamon, and flour and termeric in the mus- 

 tard ; the gas is bad, the bread is frequently of light weight, the 

 coal is often short, the coal-oil is poor, many of the fowls have their 

 crops filled with stones and gravel to make them weigh more ; in 

 short there is cheating all around and nobody seems to be getting 

 value for his money. It is hardly to be wondered at that the Chi- 

 nese are talking of sending missionaries over to convert us. — Sani- 

 tary News. 



The I.mmortality of Bacteria. — Grace Calvert had previously 

 shown that bacteria can live in strong carbolic acid, and in short, in 

 almost anything. It is not a little surprising to fmd these remark- 

 able organisms not only living, but flourishing in such gases as a 

 sulphurous oxide, carbonic anhydride and oxide, all highly 

 poisonous and irrespirable by animals. As Prof. Frank- 

 land observed, a question of considerable importance arises 

 out of the experiments narrated, as to whether the genus of 

 infectious diseases are not similarly endowed with a power of resist- 

 ance to ordinary influences. We look with some degree of curiosity 



