1891.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 55 



Practical Microscopy. 



Bacillus of Tubercular Consumption. — This slide was mounted 

 Dec. 20, 18S9, from a cheesy mass ahout as large as a flax seed, found 

 in the expectoration of a patient in the last stages of puhiionary phthisis. 

 The sputum was spread out upon a fragment of clean window ghiss 

 about three or four inches square, and held up to the light where the 

 millet-seed-shaped clieesy masses could be easily seen. * * * 



The slide showed the bacilli very distinctly, both as solid rods and as 

 chains of spores. Near the edge of the cover, fields can be shown con- 

 taining hundreds of thousands of bacilli of various shapes and sizes. 

 A very interesting fact connected with the case of this patient is that 

 the general mass of sputum, exclusive of the cheesy masses above re- 

 ferred to, contained scarcely any bacilli. The patient had been treated 

 for more than a year for bronchitis. The slide has an additional in- 

 terest from this fact that it is one of the slides presented by the writer 

 for examination to Gov. Fifer, of Illinois, while making an eflbrt to 

 obtain the pardon of this patient who was confined at the Southern Il- 

 linois Penitentiary (sentenced for a term of 12 years for forgery), and 

 which he l^elieves was partly instrumental in securing the pardon, 

 which was granted a few weeks later. The patient died in a St. 

 Louis Hospital a few weeks after the granting of the pardon. Thei-e- 

 fore in addition to its other numerous practical uses, the micitiscope 

 was, the writer believes, successfully used in this case in the cause of 

 humanity. — James A. Close^ M. D. 



Adulterated Ground Pepper. — Of all the spices, black pepper 

 seems to be the most subject to adulterations. Of the numerous sam- 

 ples 1 have examined I have found nearly three-fourths more or less 

 adulterated. The fact that ground pepper can be bought cheaper than 

 the whole grain goes to show that something must be " rotten in Den- 

 mark." The most common adulterations I found were ground crack- 

 ers, beans, and shells of all sorts. The use of potato starch (as in this 

 sample) for the purpose of sophisticating this spice, is comparatively 

 rare. Battershall does not mention it in this connection at all ; Hassell, 

 however, does. This sample was obtained in New York city during 

 the winter of 1S81, and it showed a much larger per cent, of potato' 

 starch than this particular mount does ; as it seemed almost impossible 

 to prevent the loss of some of the starch when adding the balsam to 

 complete the mount. The starch will be found much more readily with 

 the aid of the polariscope when the beautiful cross of this starch will 

 show up very plainly. 



In this connection I would say that we ought to agitate as much as 

 possible lor a national adulteration law. State laws for various rea- 

 sons are dead letters ; and moreover any State not very strict in their 

 enforcement becomes the dumping ground for all the adulterated stuff' 

 from States more vigilant The amount we are annually out of pocket 

 (to say nothing of really dangerous admixtures, and especially of di- 

 luted medicines, etc.) from this source alone must be enormous. — F. 

 T. Aschnian. 



Silk Fibre from U. S. Bank Note. — This is a portion of a Treas- 

 ury note from which the silk fibre has been removed. The fibre is 

 shown at the right. This fibre is woven into the paper during the pro- 



