1896.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 361 



during- one and a half to two hours while the experiment 

 lasted. The authors conclude that as in the case of the 

 kidneys the excretion of micro-org-anisms is a formal func- 

 tion of the liver. During- one to two hours micro-organ- 

 isms circulating in the blood were, however, not execreted 

 by the submaxillary gland. Whether the difference thus 

 present between the liver and the submaxillary gland, 

 is due to the difference in their structure is left an open 

 question. — Medical Review. 



MEDICAL MICROSCOPY. 



Antitoxin Serum in Smallpox. — M. and A. Bechlere 

 communicated to the Academy of Medicine, Paris, the re- 

 sult of observations made by them, which indicate the 

 probability that they have discovered a means of success- 

 fully treating smallpox by an antitoxic serum. The se- 

 rum is obtained from the blood of vaccinated animals, and 

 is used in the same manner as the antitoxic serum which is 

 employed in the treatment of diphtheria. 



The Action of Tricresol on some Pathogenic Microbes. 

 — The Presse viedicale for October 3d contains an abstract 

 of an article by Dr. O. Bronstein, which was published in 

 the Meditzinskoie Obozrenie, 1896, No. 7. The experimental 

 researches of the author concerning the action of tricresol 

 were carried out on the following bacterial varieties: The 

 staphylococcus, the streptococcus, Eberth's bacillus, the 

 comma bacillus, the comma bacillus of cholera, and the 

 bacillus of glanders. The result of his experiments 

 showed that a solution of tricresol in the proportion of one 

 in a thousand, acting for two or three days, had a bacterial 

 action on all these organisms except the p3'Ocyanic bacillus. 

 In order to kill the streptococcus a solution of one in two 

 thousand was sufficient, and to destroy the diphtheria 

 bacillus, a solution of one in two thousand five hundred. 

 A one-per-cent. solution killed the typhoid bacillus, the 

 staphylococcus, and the streptococcus in five minutes; 

 the bacillus of cholera, glanders, and of diphtheria in threa 



