210 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [September 



moving them through the air or holding over a flame, or by passing a 

 few times through the flame. This fixes and dries the preparation. 

 Place some drops of aniline oil in a reagent glass half filled with water, 

 shake and filter into a watch-glass. Add several drops of an alcoholic 

 solution of fuchsin or methyl violet to the contents of the watch-glass till 

 they are markedly colored. Warm this mixture till it begins to steam. 

 Place the cover-glass with the dried sputum face downwards on the 

 warm liquid and let it float from three to five minutes. Remove and 

 rinse in alcohol, acidulated with nitric or hydrochloric acid, until very 

 slight traces of color remain ; then rinse in ordinary alcohol (70 or 80 

 per cent.) Dry the cover-glass as before by holding above a flame, 

 clean it where necessary, add a little pure glycerine, and set under the 

 microscope. An enlargement of 400 diameters will show the bacilli 

 if present. — College and Clinical Record, July, 1889. 



Early Diagnosis of Morbid Growths. — It is often desirable to 

 make a microscopic examination of a tumor before its removal. For 

 excising a portion of the tumor sufficient for this purpose, Dr. J. Col- 

 lins Warren uses a small canula (diameter 2 to 5 millimetres) sharpened 

 at one end. The instrument is used by gently rotating it between the 

 fingers. When it has penetrated the tumor to the desired depth, it is 

 withdrawn a short distance and then entered obliquely, so as to cut off 

 the column of tissue. The instrument has been used satisfactorily in 

 over one hundred cases. 



The " Corn-stalk Disease " in Cattle. — In the August number of 

 the Buffalo Med. and Surg. Jour., Dr. Frank S. Billings continues 

 his record of observations upon the micro-organisms found in cattle af- 

 fected with this disease. 



Drawings of this disease germ, in its different stages of development, 

 are given. It is described as " intermediate between micrococci and 

 bacilli," belonging in the same group with the germ of the swine-plague 

 and the Southern cattle-plague. Another paper will appear in the 

 Sept. number, when, perhaps, a fuller notice will be given. 



The Relation of the Tubercle Bacillus to the Early Diag- 

 nosis and Prognosis of Phthisis. — For sound common sense we 

 commend Dr. J. W. Roosevelt's paper on this topic (Jour. Am. Med. 

 Assn.) 



His conclusions are as follows : 



1. The bacillus tuberculosis is of great positive, but little negative, 

 value in diagnosis. 



2. In prognosis the bacillus is of little value. 



3. Finding the bacillus sometimes renders a diagnosis certain which 

 would otherwise be doubtful. 



He protests against the so-called antiseptic treatment of phthisis since 

 no safe specific bacillary poison has yet been discovered, and it is much 

 easier to kill the complex body-cell than the more simply organized 

 bacillus. 



