1896.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL 313 



about 1,000 revolutions a minute. The corpuscles divide 

 by force of g-ravity, and form on the sides of the tube in 

 easily traceable divisions of red corpuscles, white corpus- 

 cles and serum. The new method permits of larg-er, and, 

 consequently, more representative quantitive examinations 

 being- used in experimenting^, besides doing- away with 

 actual microscopic counting-. — (Physician and Surg-eon.) 



BACTERIOLOGY. 



Bacteria of the Vagina. — Dr. Chas. Jewett has been 

 studying- the bacteria of the vag-ina in the newly born, and 

 summarizes his conclusions as follows : — 



1. The vag-ina remains sterile for at least two hours 

 after birth. From this time until the third day micro- 

 org-anisms may or may not be detected ; the number of 

 cases where bacteria are found, g-radually increases as 

 time g-oes on, and the bacteria-free secretions diminish. 

 After the third day micro-org-anisms are always present 

 in the secretion of the vag-ina. 



2. Pathog^enic org-anisms are relatively frequent ; sta- 

 phylococcus pyogenes albus and aureus are observed in 

 four per cent, of the cases; streptococci, in 14.6 per cent, 

 of the cases. — Modern Medicine. 



Antitoxic Serum in Small-pox. — M. and A. Beclere re- 

 cently communicated to the Academy of Medicine, Paris, 

 the result of observations made by them, which indicate the 

 probability that they have discovered a means of treating- 

 small-pox by an antitoxic serum with the same deg-ree of 

 success that has attended the treatment of diphtheria. 

 The serum is obtained from the blood of vaccinated ani- 

 mals, and is used in the same manner as the antitoxic se- 

 rum which is employed in the treatment of diphtheria. 



Bacteriological Etiology of the Different Forms of 

 Acute Conjunctivitis. — This exhaustive article is of in- 

 terest as g^iving- a fair indication of our present knowl- 

 of the subject. 



