248 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Aug, 



but are all enemies of mankind. The idea, of course, arises from 

 the fact that so many diseases are traced to the dread bacillus. 

 Science, however, is showing that onl}'^ some are malignant, 

 while others are harmless to mankind, and some are beneficent. 

 Indeed, it is not improbable that all of them, when we under- 

 stand their true functions, may prove to be beneficent in their 

 right place. We are even beginning to utilize them, as we util- 

 ize animals, plants and chemical bodies. The latest idea is to 

 "set a thief to catch a thief" — that is to say, set bacteria to kill 

 bacteria. Scott Moncrieff has patented a method of purifying 

 sewage by bacteria in the shape of a " cultivation filter bed." 

 It is based on the principle that bacteria exist in 

 sewage, which are capable of, as it were, digesting and disinte- 

 grating it. They are natural scavengers, like the vultures and 

 and carnivorous birds of the tropics, and we have only to press 

 them into our service intelligently and they will work for us. 

 Under favorable conditions they can, moreover, be multiplied 

 to an indefinite extent. Mr. Moncrieff proposes to purify 

 sewage l)y putrefaction, and when he starts a new filter bed he 

 inoculates it with the contents of an old one. — W. Druggist. 



Bacteriological Work in Chicago. --There is a notice in one 

 of the recent numbers of the Journal of the new bacteriological 

 laboratory established in Philadelphia, under the supervision 

 of Dr. Bolton, of Johns Hopkins University. Your readers may 

 not generally be aware of the efficient work in this line which 

 has been carried on by Dr, Adolph Gerhmann, in the lal^ora- 

 tory of the Health Department of Chicago, during the past 

 year. For information upon this subject the reader may refer 

 to the official reports. Dr. Gehrmann is an excellent bacteriol- 

 ogist, and for a long time he has been furnishing small boxes 

 containing the requisite appliances for the collection and safe 

 preservation of diphtheria cultures. The^e little boxes are fur- 

 nished to medical practitioners of the city on application, and 

 the diagnosis is promptly made at the laboratory and reported 

 by telephone or otherwise. The physicians have very largely 

 availed themselves of the arrangements for prompt diagnosis of 

 this disease, with gratifying results. There is a menagerie of 

 of white mice, rabbits, Guinea pigs, etc. attached to the labora- 

 tory, for experimental inoculation, and an extended series of ex- 



