1892.] MICROSCOriCAL JOURNAL. 19 



MEDICAL MICROSCOPY. 



A Troublesome Cotton Seed. — Last June a child in South 

 Carolina was found to be suffering with what seemed to be ozena, and 

 the odor was simply unbearable. Dr. Geo. Howe extracted a foreign 

 body and turned it over to Prof. E. E. Jackson, of Columbia, S. C. 

 The object was oval in shape and measured 6-16 x 14-16 inch. A 

 velvetv substance covered it, while sc: aping revealed cotton fibres and 

 fragments of hard crust showed cellular structure. Placing them under 

 the microscope, polarized light revealed the colors peculiar to cotton 

 seed, as did the fibres. No oil globules were discovered. The seed 

 had been /;/ /lavcs for two years. 



Purulent Arthritis without Micro-organisms. — A case is re- 

 ported of a man 69 years old suffering from this disease, but whose pus 

 contained no microbes. Not only experiments but a searching micro- 

 scopical examination showed this. A simple aspiration cured the 

 case. In another no microbes could be found, though the patient died 

 after having his joint tapped. The man of 57 was a diabetic. 



The Bacillus of Typhoid has been subjected, by Janowski, to 

 the action of light, who reports its development prevented by the 

 chemically active rays of the solar spectrum. He exposed test-tube 

 cultivations to the action of diffuse light, and deprived others of light. 

 The action of direct sunlight was to stop development in from 5 to 10 

 hours. He also tried interposing screens of bicromate of potash, alum, 

 fuchsin, gentian-violet, etc., in solution. 



Influenza being caused by the multiplication of bacilli, which ex- 

 periments show to grow best in certain nutrient media, such as beef 

 tea at 98*^ F., Dr. Crerar, of Edinburgh, thinks that the treatment de- 

 mands a curtailment of nutrient media and an alkaline condition of 

 the system. Hence he gives bicarbonate of potash as one of several 

 ways to produce a greatly increased alkalinity. Dose : 30 grains in a 

 teacupful of milk every two or three hours. A few drops of the tinc- 

 ture of capsicum may or may not be added. If heart action is weak- 

 ened by the drug, digitalis will quickly restore it. If diarrhoea results 

 give Dover's powder. 



He thus would exhaust the disease without it having any course, 

 provided the vital powers are sufficient to resist the poison taken to 

 destroy the microbe. This treatment involves the immediate multipli- 

 cation of a baneful and death-producing plant — the pathogenic fungus, 

 it being known that during the growth of micro-organisms a peculiar 

 substance is formed which is eventually fatal to its own microbe. 



Germs of Diphtheria. — jp. Blanchard^ M. Z>., gives the following 

 ways in which they may be conveyed from the sick to the healthy : 



By immediate contact, as in kissing. 



By particles of throat secretion forcibly ejected during examinations 

 and thrown directly into the mouth or nostrils of the examiner. 



By inhalation of a patient's breath. 



By inhalation of dried sputum suspended in the air as dust. 



By the clinical thermometer, if temperature is taken in the mouth. 

 (Take temperature in the axilla.) 



By using undisinfected utensils, as spoons, tongue-depressors, drink- 

 ing glasses. 



