294 ~ Chronicles of Science. [April, 
‘was melted off in order to remove any fluid that might adhere from 
the lips, the ends of the tube were sealed, and it was kept at a 
temperature of from 13° to 15° C. From one of the several tubes 
thus prepared, the point was removed after two days, and a drop of 
blood expelled on the next day, which, when examined with the 
microscope, showed large quantities of fungus-granules, chains and 
rods; mobile rods were rare. Milk, eggs, the mouth, and many 
organic fluids contain vibriones in this condition. Though Pro- 
fessor Hallier, the greatest authority on microscopic fungi, does not 
accept Frau Liiders’ results as to the connection of “moulds” and 
“ vibriones,” yet her researches on the blood have great importance 
in connection with his own. Professor Hallier has recently an- 
nounced that he has been able to isolate and identify from the 
blood of typhus-fever patients a distinct form of fungus; also in 
vaccine matter and in other cases. Dr. Salisbury, of New York, 
has also recently made known the observation of distinct fungi in 
the fluids of persons suffering from other contagious diseases. Are 
we not advancing to a great fact as to the nature of such diseases ? 
Fermentation and vaccination may come to mean much the same 
thing. Frau Liiders has also successfully shown that “ yeast” may 
be grown from many “moulds,” as first demonstrated by Hallier. 
5. CHEMISTRY. 
(Including the Proceedings of the Chemical Society.) 
Awone the papers calling for prominent notice in this Chronicle, 
the first place is due to the Researches on Vanadium, an account 
of which was given by Dr. Roscoe in his Bakerian lecture before 
the Royal Society. The metal to which the name Vanadium has 
been given was first discovered by Del Rioin 1801. That chemist 
was, however, persuaded that the substance he had in hand was 
Chromium, and the new metal was again overlooked, until redis- 
covered by Sefstrém in 1850. Having hitherto been found in 
very small quantities, few chemists have had the opportunity of 
studying the metal and its compounds, and our knowledge of them 
is consequently limited. Almost all we know of them is, in fact, 
derived from the writings of Berzelius, whose conclusions have 
seldom been open to dispute. The remarkable exception, how- 
ever, which vanadium compounds offer to the law of isomorphism, 
if the views of Berzelius are accepted as correct, has greatly puzzled 
chemists, who were more ready to admit an exception to a law, 
than to suppose an error in an analysis by the “solemn Swede.” 
But it follows from the researches of .Dr. Roscoe that what Ber- 
zelius took for the metal vanadium is really the monoxide, and that 
