62 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Feb., 



write and })ublish, any way. more books and journals than the 

 rest have opportunity to study to advantage. R. H. Ward, 



Troy, N. Y. 



Spores in Syphilitic Blood. — Dr. E. Cutter, writes : " 1 liave 

 for the first time in a medical college demonstrated at the Boston 

 College P. and S. on the screen the saltating spores of syphilitic. 

 Blood." 



EDITORIAL. 



The Microscope in School. — At Mr. Moody's school in 

 Northfield, a pupil says that they examine the blood of his pu- 

 pils with the microscope as a part of the instruction, which is :i 

 move in the right direction. The time is coming wdien micro- 

 scopes will be as common as pianos and organs in houses. If 

 pu])ils of pre])aratory schools learn how to study the form ele- 

 ments in blood, it is high time that the medical profession see to 

 it tliat they are not left behind. 



A Chance to Use the Microscope to Save Cattle. — Yester- 

 day .January 18, seventeen fine cattle were killed on Ex-Vifte 

 President Morton's farm. We have not learned the results, but 

 if the inorphology of the l^lood in tubuculosis is th** same as in 

 &man, it is jjossible to tell from the blood whether the cows are 

 lubuculous or not. Some recent trials of this kind came out won- 

 derfully correct as verified by the post mortem examinations. 



MICROSCOPICAL APPARATUS. 



A Big Microtone, — At Chicago was shown by the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania a giant microtome used for cutting micro- 

 scope sections through the entire brain. The object to be sec- 

 tioned is fixed at the end of a very heavy lever and allowed to 

 sink down ui)on the edge of a broad knife, tlie blade of which 

 is parallel to tbe side of the lever-. The section as it comes off 

 is caught on a sloping sheet of ])a])er. 



Wax Models of Microscopic Objects. — .\ method of 

 making models in wax has l)een deviscil as follows: A camera 

 drawing is made of each section in the series. The pa[ter, which 

 is v(;iy thin, is then attached to a sheet of wax. For an enlarge- 

 ment of twenty-five, the wax must be twenty-five times as thick 



