1886.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



209 



those who have endeavored to ex- 

 plain how the microbes produce their 

 effects. One can more readily study 

 and understand the action of a poison 

 upon the svstem than of an almost 

 invisible bacterium. Professor L. 

 Brieger, of Berlin, in studying the 

 physiological properties of some of 

 the ptomaines, obtained by him 

 from different substances, found 

 that, in their effects upon the or- 

 gans and tissues of the body, they 

 very closely resembled those of the 

 alkaloids produced from the higher 

 phanerogamous plants, such as the 

 atropines, etc. The ptomaine pro- 

 duced by the bacterium of swine- 

 plague has been successfully em- 

 ployed by Drs. E. D. Salmon and 

 Theobald Smith to pi"oduce immu- 

 nity from the disease in at least some 

 of the animals which were otherwise 

 susceptible to the disease and died 

 from 'it. Dr. H. G. Beyer, U. S. 

 N., having ascertained bv phvsio- 

 logical experiment that the ptomaine 

 produced by the bacterium of swine- 

 plague, lately discovered by Drs. Sal- 

 mon and Smith, acted in many re- 

 spects like atropine, made the sug- 

 gestion that an attempt should be 

 made to produce immunity from dis- 

 ease by the administration of those of 

 the alkaloids which the ptomaines 

 most resembled in their normal ac- 

 tion on the tissues or perhap's also 

 their physiological antagonists. 



This important suggestion seems 

 new to us, and. no doubt, deserves 

 the attention of the investigators in 

 this field of research. 



The germ theory to-day rests upon 

 the results of experiments as care- 

 fully and critically conducted as the 

 researches in a physical or chemical 

 laboratory. The successive steps in 

 its demonstration are, in brief, the 

 isolation of the germ to be studied, 

 its propagation for many generations 

 without contamination with other 

 germs, and finally the production of 

 the disease by injecting the culture 

 fluids into the body of a healthy ani- 

 mal. When this chain of evidence is 



complete, and the effects are found to 

 be invariably the same through an 

 indefinite number of successive cul- 

 tures, scientific research can scarcely 

 attain more positive results. 

 o 



Globiferi, New Sense Organs in 

 Echinoidea. 



BY DR. OTTO HAMANN.* 



In the Echinoidea there may be 

 found in the skin, besides spines and 

 pedicellarioe, organs hitherto unde- 

 scribed ^vhich are to be called globif- 

 eri in allusion to their form. They 

 are seated upon a movable peduncle 

 of various length, and are globular 

 bodies of various shape according to 

 the species. In SpJuvrechinus grati- 

 iilaris the head of the globifer consists 

 of three sphaeres united to each other 

 at their points of contact, each show- 

 ing a circular aperture under a low 

 power. In the peduncle there is a 

 calcareous rod to support the head. 

 Thev are distributed over the whole 

 skin and occur in most echinoids. 

 Investigation of fresh globiferi sepa- 

 rated from the living animal shows 

 that they are glandular and emit se- 

 cretion through the pore ; they evac- 

 uate this by muscles running- concen- 

 trically with the aperture of the ball. 

 Each globifer contains a gland with 

 its aperture. 



Neither the Holothurides nor the 

 Asteridia possess such organs. In 

 them the gland cells are distributed 

 in the skin. In the Echinidea, with 

 their long spines, this would be in- 

 effective, but mounted on stalks they 

 may be controlled like the pedicella- 

 riae, and are to be considered weapons 

 of defense. 



- — — o 



Worms Frozen in Ice. 



Professor Leidy refers, in the Proc. 

 Ac. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, 1S85, p. 

 408, to finding organisms in ice, and 

 stated that Dr. S. C. Thornton had 

 submitted to him a bottle containing 

 water melted from ice in which was 

 contained a number of woi-ms. On 



* Amer. Mag. Nat. Hist., 35, p. 387. 



