1885.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



5& 



organisms, one the cells of simplest plants, 

 the other the lowest tissue-elements of the 

 animal body. It is easy to draw an infer- 

 ence from these observations, concerning 

 the possible parallelism between the phe- 

 nomena observed in the case of the daph- 

 nia, and the course of certain diseases in 

 higher organisms. 



— Mr. W. H. Bulloch is making a port- 

 able stand which will tit in a case 9 inches 

 by 4)4 by 2)^, inside measurements. The 

 base is to be detachable. The stand will 

 have centering substage, with mirror on 

 the substage bar sliding up behind the 

 substage. An Abbe condenser can be 

 used on the stand. 



— We have received a preparation of 

 the cholera bacillus from Mr. Woolman, 

 marked 'culture of Dr. Koch,' such as he 

 is now offering for sale. This is a pure 

 culture, very rich in the so-called comma- 

 bacillus. The name comma-bacillus is 

 an unfortunate one, for the slightly curved, 

 and rather short robust rods do not resem- 

 ble commas very closely, and they seem 

 not to be bacilli at all. 



— As is well known the souring of milk 

 is attributed to the growth of a peculiar or- 

 ganism, the Bacterium lactis. There is 

 good reason to suppose that the peculiar 

 characters and flavors of the various kinds 

 of cheese are due to the growth of specific 

 organisms. Mr. Earnest Hart, speaking 

 at the London Health Exhibition, said: — 

 ' The milk industry opened up a great field 

 for investigations of this class ; it was found 

 that every variety of cheese was due to the 

 influence of a particular kind of minute 

 vegetable organism, which, by its mode 

 of maturation, gave to each cheese its par- 

 ticular flavor and quality; so much so, 

 that one kind of cheese could be made 

 only in one cellar, and another kind in a 

 cellar perhaps 300 yards off, and in none 

 of the intervening cellars could the same 

 kind be made. The last time M. Pasteur 

 was in England with him, he told him 

 that his greatest desire would be, if he had 

 some years to spare, to spend them in the 

 laboratory of a dairy, working out the re- 

 lation of germs to the milk and cheese in- 

 dustry.' 



— We have received some printed no- 

 tices of recent meetings of the Wellesley 

 Microscopical Society, from which it ap- 

 pears that the Society is active, and that 

 the meetings are as interesting as they 

 were several years ago, when notices were 

 published regularly in these pages. One 

 specimen of considerable interest, dust 

 collected on the barque Wm. H. Bessie 



from the eruption of Krakatoa, was shown. 

 The vessel was in the Straits of Sunda 

 twelve or fifteen miles in a direct line from 

 Krakatoa when the eruption began ; it 

 soon became too dark to run from the 

 shower of ashes. Being in twenty-five 

 fathoms they lay with anchors down for 

 over forty-eight hours, until it was light 

 enough to see. During most of the time 

 the darkness was so great that at noon 

 the hand could not be seen within a few 

 inches of the eye. The ashes fell in such 

 enormous quantities that all hands were 

 constantly engaged in shovelling it over- 

 board as well as they could in the dark- 

 ness. The sea was not rough, but a tre- 

 mendous current was runniog. This 

 vessel was probably as near the volcano 

 as any that escaped unharmed.' 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Various Subjects 



To THE Editor : — Enclosed please find 

 $1 to renew subscription ; wish it had to 

 be $2 for a double dose. Last summer 

 1 bought an immersion -^^^ of Spencer, and 

 asked you for some advice in regard to 

 handling it, and was told to ' go at it.' I 

 have done so, and now go up to No. 19 

 very well, but am not willing to swear to 

 a good resolution oi A. pellucida yet. I 

 for one need your long promised article 

 on illumination very much, and pray de- 

 voutly that you may soon have leisure for 

 it. I have Prof. E. Smith's celebrated 

 ' How to see with the Microscope,' but 

 have derived more benefit from your sin- 

 gle sentence 'go at it,' than from all his 

 highly mixed instructions, down to pulling 

 out table drawer, and putting of napkins 

 on the edge of it. 



Last June you answered a question of 

 mine in regard to cementing balsam 

 mounts. I have cemented all my un- 

 cemented slides ; but afterwards you take 

 it all back, and decide not to cement, so 

 we can tell balsam mounts from others. 

 Would it not be better to cement, and 

 make the label tell the story ? 



1 had great trouble at first from cover 

 breakage. Mr. Ward, in his very interest- 

 ing paper on mounting, uses the expres- 

 sion 'often breaking cover after cover.' 

 Let me tell you my plan. I think it is 

 handier than your bullet pressure. It is 

 some 25 years ago, when I sent my last 

 bullet adrift, and missed at that. About 

 that time deer took H. Greeley's advice 

 and disappeared from this prairie. 1 sup- 

 pose bullets can be found in city gun 



