366 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Nov. 



ticularl}' with reference to the structure and function of blood 

 corpuscles. It was he who first satisfactorily demonstrated that 

 blood corpuscles possess a reticular structure. He says that when 

 treated with chromate of potash they show amoeboid movements, 

 and half an hour later filaments reticularly woven pass through 

 the inside of the corpuscles, the haemoglobin being enclosed in 

 tliis network. This reticulum may also be found when blood 

 is mingled with stale urine. The red blood corpuscles, there- 

 fore, possess life as protoplasm, the reticulum exactly resemb- 

 ling the living matter. Where much living matter is found the 

 constitution of the individual is good. Dr. Heitzmann hifers 

 the nature of the constitution from the qualit}'^ of the reticulum, 

 and has been able to predict the end of an illness three weeks in 

 advance by means of microscopical examination The organ- 

 ism, he affirms, is a living, continuous structure, and not an 

 aggregation of individual cells. 



New Micro-Organism in Pork. — In my work as rnicroscop- 

 ist in the Bureau of Animal Industry I have commonly observed 

 in various parts of the muscular system of swine undergoing 

 inspection, with reference to the presence of trichinae, a peculiar 

 fungus. This fungus presented itself in the form of bundles of 

 threads which have various colors and are intermingled with 

 the muscle fibers, or found separate in a clump, under the field 

 of the microscope; 



Out of 1,000 hogs inspected daily at the government abattoir, 

 I have found fifty, on an average, to be infected by this organ- 

 ism. 



The parts of the carcass from which samples are taken for the 

 trichinous inspection are the diaphragm, neck and loin respec- 

 tively; hence, these were the parts in which I have usually 

 found the fungus. As corroborated by Prof Miller, of Berlin 

 this organism belongs to the saccharomyces or yeast group. It 

 has very distinctive morphological characteristics, and I present 

 for inspection pure cultures in every media which we have at 

 our disposal. At a later time I will detail the peculiarities of 

 growth of this organism in the various media and give the re- 

 sults of my exjjeriments upon animals. A pathogenic potency 

 of this fungus— rsaccharomyces porcus — is shown by the destruc- 

 tion of white mice and rats twenty-four hours after inocula- 



