190 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [June, 



everybody is so happ3^ over the excellent workmanship and 

 low prices, that patience is being full}' rewarded. If any who 

 have sent money to us for slides have not received them, please 

 send word at once. 



The Quarterly Journal of Marine Zoology is also being re- 

 sumed by Mr. Hornell alone and we are in receipt of the March 

 number. It contains three full page plates and seven original 

 articles. To show its character we will next month reproduce 

 an article from its pages. We take subscriptions, postpaid, at 

 11.00 per annum. 



BACTERIOLOGY. 



A New Laboratory. — A bacteriological laboratory is to be 

 established in Philadelphia under the supervision of Dr. Bolton, 

 of Johns Hopkins university, as city bacteriologist. Every 

 facility for experiment will be furnished. The scope of Dr. Bol- 

 ton and his assistants will be wide. There will be diagnostic 

 tests for consumption, the germs of all contagious diseases will 

 be observed, the drinking water will be examined daily to see 

 whether it is polluted, samples of the city milk supply will be 

 placed under the microscope, and blood serum for the cure of 

 dii)htheria and rabies will be made. Culture tubes will be sent 

 from the municipal hospital to the laboratory where they will 

 be examined and the nature of the disease reported upon. 



PERSONAL. 



Professor Bleile, of the Ohio state university, has been 

 conducting a series of exi)eriments upon animals which lead 

 him to the conclusion that an electric shock of sufficient inten- 

 sity to cause death results in a contraction of the arteries, so 

 that they refuse to perform their functions. This throws the 

 blood from the veins upon the heart, and virtually drowns the 

 operation of that organ. If this is so, death occurs without real 

 injury to any organ, and if some means could be discovered by 

 which the arteries could be dilated after the shock. Dr. Bleile 

 thinks it might be possible to resuscitate a person who has been 

 apparently killed by an electric discharge. 



