I897J MICROS! '()1'I(\AL JOURNAL 107 



Physicians can Testify as to Stains. — After an examin- 

 ation thereof, both under a microscope and 1)\ a chemical 

 anahsis, the supreme court of South Carolina holds, in the 

 homicide case of State v. Martin, decided July 11, l.S9(), 

 that j)hvsicians are clearly entitled as experts to g-ive their 

 opinion as to the character of stains found on a piece of 

 floor (four. A. M. A. ). JJiat the latter was not taken from 

 the house in which the def^Midant lived at thi' time of the 

 allowed homicide until a few days before the trial, after 

 the defendant had moved from it, and while it was occu- 

 pied bv another person, it is further held did not render it 

 inadmissible in evidence, thouj^-h the force of the evidence 

 was perhaps weakened b\' these circumstances. 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES. 



Rhizopods as Scavengers.— It is interesting- to see what 

 a small animal can do as ascaveng-er. Mr. J^homas Craig", 

 at a meeting- of the Natural Science Association of Staten 

 Island, exhibited a bottle, the inside of which had been 

 covered with algf^e and a small diatom to such an extent as 

 to make it practically 0])a(|ue. Uj)on examination he not- 

 iced that a portion near the bottom was clear. A further 

 examination showed that an armv of rhi;^opods were march- 

 ing- in reg-ular order, eating- as they went. 



The name of the animal is C'entropyxis aculeata, one of 

 the lol)ose rhizo])0(ls. JJie animal itself is onlv a drop of 

 jelly, in which the highest ]»owers of the niicr()sco])e re- 

 veal nc» org-anization of any kind, yet it can travel by means 

 of pseudopodia, whic-h are merely parts of the bod v ])ro- 

 truded from any part of it. By the same means it can 

 sieze its food, con\'ey it inside its body and then digest it. 

 and when all the nutriment is exhausted cast the refuse 

 out. This it does at an \- part of the mass as it has neither 

 head nor tail. 



This particular animal builds a shell for itself, com- 

 posed of a material like chitin. and gi'ains of saiul on the 

 empty shell of diatoms. The chitin is ]»ro(luced bv the 



