1889.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 257 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES.* 



The Bacillus of Glanders is destroyed by an exposure for five 

 minutes to a five per cent, solution of carbolic acid or a -Jj^ per cent, 

 solution of corrosive sublimate. Everv article used around hoi'ses hav- 

 ing the disease should be disinfected with one of these germicides or 

 exposed to boiling water or steam at a temperature of 2X2° F. for half 

 an hour. 



Home Health. — While the death of thousands all over the land 

 from tvphoid fever is fresh in the minds of those who are spared, whv 

 not take measures to abolish the closets and filth-pools around our 

 countiy and village homes, substituting for them hygienic earth-closets 

 and disinfected cesspools, which can be made by any one " handy with 

 tools" at a trifling expense, and thus save the lives of thousands an- 

 other summer. 



Typhus bacilli in water. — Several cases of typhoid fever have re- 

 cently occurred in a town in the province of Baden, Germany, and it 

 came to light that three of the patients first aftected procured their 

 drinking water from the same well. The water was then examined, 

 the strictest precautions being used to prevent infection from other 

 sources. In three days the cultures were found to have developed, on 

 an average, one hundred and forty thousand colonies to the cubic cen- 

 timetre. Ten tests had been made, but only in one of these was there 

 found a single colony of tvphoid bacilli. 



Purity of ^A^ells. — Dr. Carl Fronkel has undertaken to test the 

 comparative purity of tube-wells and the ordinary or open wells. He 

 reports in Zeitschrift filr Higiene^ as the result of his experiments, 

 that tube-wells are almost entirely free from such organisms as come 

 from surface impurities, but that certain micro-organisms are found to 

 grow upon the surface of the tubes. The destruction of these organ- 

 isms can be secured by brushing the inside of the tubes and immedi- 

 ately pumping out the disturbed water or by use of a concentrated so- 

 lution of carbolic acid and sulphuric acid for a day or two, followed by 

 a thorough pumping of the well before the water is used. The ordi- 

 nary well is much more liable to contamination from sources of impu- 

 rity, and disinfection is impossible. This shows the great advantage 

 of tube-wells over the onlinarv sort for purposes of drink supply. 



Dr. Brown-Sequard's new discovery. — The newspaper reports 

 of the interesting and important discovery of Dr. Brown-Sequard are 

 at once amusing and exasperating. One would suppose that he had 

 discovered a substance which he has called and believes to be a veri- 

 table " elixir of life," whereas this is not the case, this name and idea 

 both being the fictions of the reporters. What he claims to have dis- 

 covered is that when the fluid expressed from certain glands of young 

 animals is injected into the blood of men who have become worn out 

 from age or other causes thev had their vigor suddenlv and greatly in- 

 creased. These results have been confirmed also by M. Variot. And 

 now some ignoramus tries the experiment in a crude wav upon some 

 ci'ank who is foolish enough to ask it. Death is the result, and Dr. 

 Brown-Sequard is berated for it all. Notwithstanding the crimi- 

 nal dabbling on the part of tyros, this promises to be one of the most 

 interesting biological discoveries of this marvellous age. 



* This department is conducted by Prof. J. H. Pillsbury. 



