288 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Aug. 



tantly without action. The pyog-enic properties of the 

 typhoid bacillus are not established by finding- the g"erm 

 in pus. 



Do Flies Spread Tuberculosis ? — Dr. W. R. Aylett, 

 (Virg-inia Med. Semi-monthly, June 26, 1896) g-ives details 

 of investig-ation : "I smeared a cover-g-lass with sputum 

 from a well advanced case of tuberculosis and placed it upon 

 clean sheet of paper, placing- around it seven or eig-ht clean 

 covers. The paper and covers were then placed where 

 flies could have ready access and soon quite a number were 

 feeding- on the sputum. An inverted tumbler was lowered 

 over them, making them prisoners without their knowl- 

 edg-e. One of the prisoners soon deposited a 'speck' on 

 one of the clean covers. To prevent this becoming- con- 

 taminated by their feet, I removed it at once. Within an 

 hour or two all of my covers were specked. The covers 

 were then put throug-h the reg-ular cover-slip preparation, 

 carbo-fuchsin being- used for the bacilli, with methylene 

 blue as a contrast stain. On microscopic examination, the 

 specks were found to contain from one to three thousand 

 bacilli tuberculosis each. I have not yet tested the viru- 

 lence of bacilli so obtained, but they show no sig^ns of dis- 

 integ-ration, seem as perfect and stain as readily as those 

 from pure cultures." 



MEDICAL mCROSCOPY. 



Non-excretion of Pathogenic microbes with the Per- 

 spiration. — Krikliwy describes in Wratsch, Nos. 8 to 10, 

 his experience with cats inoculated with anthrax bacilli 

 and then injected with pilocarpin. Microscopic examina- 

 tion of the profuse sweat induced was entirely neg-ative in 

 any discovery of the bacilli, althoug-h they were found in 

 the blood and tissues. 



Antidiphtheritic Serum Administered by Rectal Injec- 

 tion. — Dr. Chantemesse, of the Pasteur Institute of Paris, 

 has advised the exhibition of diphtherical antitoxin by 

 rectal injection instead of subcutaneously. He has used 



