184 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [May 



hair pencil in water so as to moisten it well, and press out 

 the surplus water. With this stir the sputum thoroug-hly 

 and on withdrawing- it, althoug-h nothing- will apparently 

 cling- to it, it will be full of bacilli, if they are present in the 

 sputum. With it stroke the cover glass lightly, so as to 

 make a uniform coating- over it. Of course a new pencil 

 must be used for each operation, as it has been found 

 practically impossible to free the pencil from traces of 

 bacilli, which mig-ht invalidate subsequent examinations. 

 — Drug-g-ist's Circular. 



BACTERIOLOGY. 



The Effect of the "X" Rays upon Micro-Organisms. — 



The assertion that the "X" rays may have some therap- 

 eutic value, and may perhaps modify the course of disease 

 when passed throug-h the body, has been made by a number 

 of persons, and it is a claim which may easily be misused 

 by the charlatan. Dr. T. G. Lyon of London recently 

 made some experiments on the influence of these rays in 

 cultivations of diphtheria bacilli. They were exposed in 

 the incubators for twelve hours to the "X" rays. The 

 bacilli continued to g-row and were not in the least modified 

 by the conditions to which they were subjected. — Medical 

 Record. 



Bacteria in Milk. — At a recent meeting- of the Edinburg-h 

 Royal -Society, a communication on bacteria in milk as sup- 

 plied in Edinburg-h, and the relative efficiency of different 

 methods for their removal, by Dr. Hunter Stewart and 

 Dr. J. Buchanan Young-, was read by the former. Dr. 

 Hunter Stewart said that in all civilised countries the 

 Leg-islature had taken steps to prevent the watering- of 

 milk; but perhaps it was of g-reater importance that child- 

 ren as well as adults should be preserved from those 

 diseases which were produced by the presence of micro- 

 org-anisms in milk. Cowhouses in this country were not 

 kept with that careful and punctilious cleanliness with 

 which they were kept in Holland and Denmark. The 



