92 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [March 



I think tliey are. And can wo separate the Neo- 

 cene t'roin the recent soundings in any respect ? I do not 

 think so. It has been more tlian hinted at the likeli- 

 hood of the Neocene of California being V)ut recent from 

 comparing them by lithographic reasons, and I think 

 they can also be likened from palseontologic reasons 

 likewise. We can not distinguish Neocene Bacilliaria, 

 Rhizopoda or Foranienifera from recent which are living 

 now. Although the strata in New Zealand have been 

 placed in the Cretaceous, and at Simbirsk in the lower 

 Eocene, we must expect to see them bearing like forms 

 to the recent, and which live more on the botton?. of the 

 ocean and are in every inlet along the coast. 



Practical Methods of Demonstrating Tuhercle Bacilli. 



Bv W. N. vSHERiMAN M. D., 



MERCED, CAL. 



Read before the Safi Joaquin Valley Medical Society. 



When we consider the rapid progress of medical 

 science, we must realize the vast field of literature with 

 which the general practitioner should familiarize himself, 

 in order to keep posted. With such conditions confront- 

 ing us, Ave must economize our time and adopt methods, 

 that are shortest and quickest, in enabling us to reach 

 conclusions and to obtain results. For this reason the 

 tendency of the science of bacteriolgy is to teach methods 

 by which we can'most quickly reach results, and thus 

 make a quick and sure diagnosis of contagious and other 

 diseases. In such diseases as cholera and di[)htheria, a 

 fikillfnl bacteriologist may, within 24 hours, establish a 

 jiositivp diagnosis*, by means of the microscope. In cases 

 of tubercular disease of the lungs, a positive diagnosis 

 may be established in fifteen minutes, when the most 

 careful and skillful physical examination may haA^e failed 

 to reveal the slighest lesion. 



