54 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [March, 



1. Kerosene. 



2. A layer of woolly looking stuff'. 



3. Clear shellac. 



4. Sediment. 



By means of a pipette, or any other convenient way, draw oft' the shellac, 

 and to each 50 parts of it add one part of boiled linseed oil. This will 

 make a strong and lasting cement for attaching metal to glass. 



EDITORIAL. 



Bacterial origin of infectious disease. — Dr. G. M. Sternberg in an 

 annual address as President of the American Public Health Association at 

 Memphis, Tenn., in November, 1S87, reviews the results of recent progress 

 in medicine in this department. After stating the importance of well en- 

 dowed laboratories for the proper study of disease, he mentions, as justifying 

 them, the fact that in many diseases protection is undoubtedly secured by the 

 use of attenuated virus. This has been done in the case of small -pox, anthrax, 

 swine-plague, and pleuro-pneumonia with undoubted success, and ' the evi- 

 dence in favor of Pasteur's inoculations for the prevention of hydrophobia is 

 such that we can scarcely doubt that it has a relative value, notwithstanding 

 the considerable number of deaths which have occurred among those who 

 have been inoculated. The recent report of the English commission, made 

 after a thorougli investigation, is favorable to the method, which may perhaps 

 hereafter be modified so as to give still better results.' 



Four methods are known of attenuating the virulent potency of disease 

 germs, viz., (i) by exposure to oxygen, (2) by exposure to heat, (3) by the 

 action of certain chemical agents. (4) bypassing through the body of cer- 

 tain animals. 



It is now generally recognized that practical sanitation is only safe if in 

 accord with our knowledge of the biologv of micro-organisms, hence the im- 

 mense importance of their thorough investigation. With respect to questions 

 still under discussion, the author reviews the question of the cholera bacillus 

 and its relation to the disease and the bacillus of croupous-pneumonia, and 

 concludes with reference to the recent investigations of Counselman and 

 Osier upon the germ of Laveran and its causal relation to malarial fever. 



Correction. — On page 214 of vol. viii of this Journal we incorrectly 

 spelled the name of the author of a convenient method for collecting tuber- 

 cular spectum. The name which now reads Dr. H. Tholman should read Dr. 

 Henry L. Tolman. 



Simplicity in great men. — There is nothing more striking to one who 

 looks through Darwin's Life and Letters, recently published by D. iVppleton 

 & Co., than the absence of vainglory and self-praise. The universal testimony 

 of those who know that great man. and now, after his death, the testimony of 

 his own letters, is that he was satisfied with the opinion of those about him. 

 He did not assert for himself his right to greatness. A friend of ours wrote 

 to Mr. Darwin a number of years ago regarding an observation which he had 

 made, which was an example of the doctrineof color variation due to the natural 

 selection. The observation Mr. Darwin acknowledged, in a very pleasant 

 personal letter. Professor Baird and Professor Gray, both recently taken from 

 the scientific world, were men in whom this quiet and splendid simplicitv was 

 conspicuous. We cannot help thinking when we find a man asserting his 

 right to greatness and general recognition, that he is somewhat unworthy of 

 that he claims. 



