1901] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL 309 
for mounting diatoms. It always contains a little water 
which gives it a grayish opacity. This; removed by long 
standing or heat, it becomes quite transparent. Whenso 
dried, it is soluble in alcohol, benzole, chloroform, ether. 
carbon bisulphide, and volatile oils but not in petroleum 
ether. When not thus soluble, try xylol and impart a lit- 
tle heat to it. Neither Carpenter or Gage have alluded 
to it. 
Storm ErFects.—Maj. H. A. Cummings while in South 
Africa studied the storms of the Pretoria valley. The air 
becomes very heated and dry. Storms of severity oc- 
curred including whirlwinds of dust, paper, leaves, etc. 
A nutrient gelatin plate exposed one second in one of 
these storms developed thousands of colonies of bacteria. 
The people believed that fever was spread thereby. We 
may in this way see the power of wind to devastate whole 
areas of tropical territory. 
VaccINation.—In view of such facts as the following, 
it is very difficult to see how the persons who are crying 
down vaccination are actuated by anything less than very 
blind prejudice. 
Jenner’s discovery was made in 1798. Prior thereto the 
ravages of small-pox were simply astonishing, one four- 
teenth of the population of the earth dying therefrom. 
In a single year of epidemic in Russia, 2,000,000 persons 
died of it while many more were made blind or other- 
wise disfigured. The average annua] death-rate in all 
of Europe was 210,000 by small-pox alone. In Great 
Britian, the deaths were 40,000 in 1798 but immediately 
upon vaccination being commenced the deaths decreased 
to 6,000. In Venezuela, in 1812, Baimi exterminated the 
disease there; in 1813, a million of people were saved in 
South America by vaccination. Before Jenner’s day, great 
epidemics of small-pox swept off people like so many 
flies; since, there have been no epidemics and the uni- 
