30 TllK AMKKK'AN MONTHLY [.lannai-v, 



Insects Transmit Contagion. — Bcilhiii^s. ncconliiiy; ti) Dr. 

 Dcwcvio. inav he can iii><)l\()iit;iy;i(>n. 11 is attention was callcil 

 to this possiliility bv u case of tuberculosis occuninj; in a younjj; 

 man who slept in a beil loiinerly occupied bv liis brother, who 

 hail ilieil ol" the (hsease. I'he room liad been thorous^hly disin- 

 fcctcd, but the bedstead had escaped renovation. The Doctor ob- 

 served that the younj^ man liad been bitten by tlie insects, and 

 securing some of" tliem found them full of tubercle bacilli. I le put 

 s<»me. presumably, healthy bujjs in contact with tuberculous spu- 

 tum, and was able, several weeks after, to obtain from them excel- 

 lent cidtures of tubercle bacilli. — Mcilical Record. 



Peroxide of Hydrogen. — Peroxide of hydroj^cn (IIv,Oi) in the 

 stron>; IS Volume solution is almost as harmless as water ; and 

 vet, accordin«; to the testimony of (iillbrd, it kills anthrax spores 

 in a few minutes. 



Dr. Paul (iibier, of New York, says; 



*' The destructive action of peroxide of hydrogen upon patho- 

 genic germs, even diluted in the j)ropoition of 3.2 per cent, solu- 

 tion, is almost instantaneous ; after a contact of a few minutes he 

 failed to cultivate the microbes which were submitted to the pe- 

 roxide, owing to the fact that the germs had been completely 

 destroyed." 



Manv other writers have mentioned its power as a bactericide. 



Cholera Bacilli are reported to live in water i to 6 days ; in 

 l)utter, 6 davs ; in cabbage. 3 days ; on postal cards, 20 hours 

 (drv) ; on silver and copper coins, ^ hour. The authority for 

 these statements is Prof. UHblmann, of Berlin. 



IMU(i AM) FOOh AlK LTF.«.\TION. 



Buckwheat Flour Adulteration. — Prof. L. E. Sayre, of 

 Lawrence. Kansas, has made a rep(»rt to his State Board of Agri- 

 culture on the adulteration which he has foutid in the market 

 supply of buckwheat flour. A microscopic examination has 

 shown that wheat tl(jur and corn flour have been introduced to 

 such an extent for the purpose of adulteration that tiie character- 

 istic starch granules of buckwheat were scarcely visible in the 

 specimens. No mineral (earthy) ailultcrati(Mi was found in the 

 ** buckwheat," though the proportion of buckwheat flour was very 

 small indeed. 



Digitalis and Senna Distinguished. — Prof. Sayre writes us 

 that these two thugs in the powdered state resemble each other so 

 closely that their difl'erences are unrecognizable with the unaided 

 eye. Ifa sample of powdered senna is mounted and examined 

 under a i objective, numerous fragments of hairs will be found 

 mixed up with the debris, and these arc unicellular. Digitalis, on 

 the contrarv. exhibits multicellular hairs when mounted and ex- 

 amined in the same way. An illustration of these cells will be 

 found in 7"//r A/icroscope for February. 



