280 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [December, 



"Perhaps in the future, however, genius may succeed in making forces 

 and processes serviceable, which may enable the boundaries to be over- 

 stepped which now seem impassable. I believe, however, that those 

 instruments which may, perhaps, in the future more effectually aid 

 our senses in the investigation of the material world than the micro- 

 scope of the present will have little else than the name in common 

 with it." 



To look at the microscope in its early days, three hundred, two hun- 

 dred, yes, but twenty-five years ago, and review the progress made in 

 the optical and mechanical construction, of the investigations that have 

 been instituted, and the results achieved by the aid of this wonderful 

 instrument, you can but predict that the microscope has before it the 

 prospect, if not the assuiance, of a most glorious future. 



MEDICAL MICROSCOPY. 



By F. BLANCHARD, M. D., 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Pathology of Gout. — Dr. G. Linden, of Kassel, records in 

 Deutsche Medicinal Zeltung some microscopical observations upon 

 gouty deposits. The abnormal and pain-producing growths under the 

 nails are caused by the irritating influence of crystals of urate of sodium 

 deposited in the cellular tissue. He was his own patient. Scraping 

 out the loose cellular tissue from under the nails, and examining it 

 microscopically after diluting it with water or vinegar into a pulpy 

 mass, " it presented in the midst of numberless epidermal cellules of 

 strong refractive power many needle-shaped crystals of ui'ate of sodium,, 

 partly crowded together in little bunches." 



Megastoma Entericum as a Cause of Catarrh of the Stom- 

 ach. — Dr. Mortz reports a case of chronic catarrh of the stomach 

 where he found enormous quantities of Megastoma entericum^ a 

 species of infusoria, first described by Grassi. The Megastoma, be- 

 longing to the order of Flagellata, has a pyriform body, its anterior 

 end being provided with a suctorial organ, at the bottom of which two 

 nuclei are situated. Around the suctorial organ (peristoma) six fla- 

 gella are seen, serving as organs of locomotion, while two other fla- 

 gella are attached to the caudal end of the body. Besides these free 

 forms, the Megastoma appears also in encysted, permanent forms, 

 which are oval in shape. 



The animalcule lives in the small intestine, preferently in the upper 

 portion, where it attaches itself to the mucous membrane by means of 

 the suction apparatus. \\\ the stools the encysted forms are most fre- 

 quent, and only in the more violent diarrhoeas free animals also make 

 their appearance in larger quantities. It is sometimes found in patients 

 who present no diarrhoeal symptoms. Its expulsion, after it has be- 

 come settled, is difficult. Quinine, hydrochloric acid, naphthaline, 

 glycerine, and extract of male fern were used without result. 



Ringworm of the Scalp. — The N. T. Med. Jour, for Octobey 

 lo, 1891, contains the record of thirty-one cases of this obstinate dis- 

 ease treated by the germicidal method. The article is by Charles G, 

 Kerley, M.D. As is well known, the disease is due to tlie presence 



