288 THE AMERICAN BIONTHLY [Aug. 



tantly without action. The pyog^enic properties of the 

 typhoid bacillus are not established by finding- the germ 

 in pus. 



Do Flies Spread Tuberculosis ? — Dr. W. R. Aylett, 

 (Virginia Med. Semi-monthly, June 26, 1896) gives details 

 of investigation : "I smeared a cover-glass with sputum 

 from a well advanced case of tuberculosis and placed it upon 

 clean sheet of paper, placing around it seven or eight clean 

 covers. The paper and covers were then placed where 

 flies could have ready access and soon quite a number were 

 feeding on the sputum. An inverted tumbler was lowered 

 over them, making them prisoners without their knowl- 

 edge. One of the prisoners soon deposited a 'speck' on 

 one of the clean covers. To prevent this becoming con- 

 taminated by their feet, I removed it at once. Within an 

 hour or two all of my covers were specked. The covers 

 were then put through the regular cover-slip preparation, 

 carbo-fuchsin being used for the bacilli, with methylene 

 blue as a contrast stain. On microscopic examination, the 

 specks were found to contain from one to three thousand 

 bacilli tuberculosis each. I have not yet tested the viru- 

 lence of bacilli so obtained, but they show no signs of dis- 

 integration, seem as perfect and stain as readily as those 

 from pure cultures." 



ttEDICAL MICROSCOPY. 



Non-excretion of Pathogenic microbes with the Per- 

 spiration. — Krikliwy describes in Wratsch, Nos. 8 to 10, 

 his experience with cats inoculated with anthrax bacilli 

 and then injected with pilocarpin. Microscopic examimi- 

 tion of the profuse sweat induced was entirely negative in 

 any discovery of the bacilli, although they were found in 

 the blood and tissues. 



Antidiphtheritic Serum Administered by Rectal Injec- 

 tion. — Dr. Chantemesse, of the Pasteur Institute of Paris, 

 has advised the exhibition of diphtherical antitoxin by 

 rectal injection instead of subcutaneously. He has used 



