1895.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 311 



be fixed at any phase, and then studied at length. If 

 then the investigator observes and keeps record of every 

 point that may have an influence on the structural ap- 

 pearances, whether shown by experience or suggested by 

 insight, and this record always accompanies the speci- 

 men, thus and thus only, it seems to me, can he feel con- 

 fident that he is liable to gain real knowledge from the 

 study, knowledge that represents actuality and which 

 will serve as the basis for a newer and more complete 

 unraveling of the intricacies of structure, an approxi- 

 mate insight into the mechanism through which the life 

 energy manifests itself. 



And so, with all the light that physics and chemistry 

 can give, commencing with the simplest problems and 

 being careful that every factor that can influence the re- 

 sult is being duly considered, the microscopist can go 

 forward with enthusiasm and with hope, not with the 

 hope that the great central question can be answered in 

 one generation, perhaps not in a thousand, but confident 

 that if each one adds his little to the certai7i knowledge 

 of the world, then in the fullness of time the knowledge 

 of living substance and the life processes vi^ill be so full 

 and deep that what life is, though unanswered, may 

 cease to be the supreme question. 



Telephone Germ Diseases. — The medical journals of Paris 

 are considerably agitated over the possibility of the communi- 

 cation of inicrobic diseases by means of the telephone. This is 

 a subject which doubtless ought to receive more attention than 

 has hitherto been accorded to it. Many persons, in using the 

 telephone, allow the ears or lips to touch the ear-piece or 

 mouth-piece of the instrument, and, by so doing, may contami- 

 nate it if suffering from disease, or they may become contami- 

 nated if the instrument has been in contact with a diseased 

 person. Some moans ought certainly to be provided by which 

 this source of danger may be avoided. 



