1896.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL 107 



showed much less pigment than the others. Lecithin does not 

 act like a food. It is not an organo-plastic substance. It in- 

 creases the assimilation of the food, and has a direct stimulat- 

 ing influence of great importance on the processes of multipli- 

 cation among the cellular elements. The improvement of the 

 blood, we know, is the most important condition to stimulate 

 the growth of the organism, that is, the multiplication of its 

 morphologic elements and their development. And this leci- 

 thin accomplished in these experiments, — Semaine Medkale. 



The Culture Tube in Diagnosis of Diphtheria, — We 



notice that some of our contemporaries are speaking contempt- 

 uously of the culture tube as a method of diagnosis in diph- 

 theria, and some of the more foolish are intimating that we will 

 soon do away with microbes and go back to the good old style. 

 It is true that some modifications have been made in the method 

 by which bacteriological diagnosis of diphtheria is made, but 

 the value of the method is none the less great. It is now, we 

 believe, conceded that if the cultures obtained from the throats 

 which are supposed to have diphtheria contain no bacillus 

 either identical with or resembling that of the Klebs-Loeffler 

 bacillus, the case is not one of diphtheria. If, however, these 

 organisms are found, it is not possible to make a diagnosis at 

 once of diphtheria, without inoculations, for there is a non- 

 Virulent bacillus which in all respects resmbles morphologically 

 the true bacillus. If, however, in connection with this bacillus 

 there are clinical symptoms of diphtheria, then the diagnosis 

 is practically certain. Thus, the bacteriological methods have 

 both a positive and a negative value that is extremely great. — 

 Medical Record. 



DIATOMS. 



Diatomology as an Aid to Geology. — By M. J. Tempere. 

 Who would maintain at the present time that the study of 

 Diatoms is of small importance, and not recognise that as much 

 and even more than any branch of Cryptogamia it has a right 

 to be classed among those which can powerfully aid the re- 

 searches into the secrets of Nature that are the most difficult of 

 solution ? 



