58 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[March, 



§ 



nack objective. He then used a Tolles ^, 

 and discovered that the so-called germs 

 or spores multiplied by fission and formed 

 zoogloea clusters; but they were still 

 spores, and developed into rods. * Final- 

 ly, he has obtained a ^^ homogeneous 

 immersion ; and, presto ! the Bacillus 

 suis, christened by him so short a time 

 ago, becomes a bispherical schizophyte 

 flourishing a flagellum. Are we to under- 

 stand that the bacillus theory is com- 

 pletely overturned by the new lens .'' 

 Certainly a bispherical organism, multi- 

 plying by fission, forming zoogloea clus- 

 ters, and furnished with a flagellum, is a 

 curiosity among bacillus spores. What a 

 wonderful effect an objective may have 

 on the natural history of a schizophyte ! 



Possibly the new objective will enable 

 Dr. Detmers, in his next report, to give 

 some tangible evidence for the assertion, 

 that the bispherical organism " constitutes 

 the cause of swine plague." 



A Subscriber. 



To THE Editor. — I am authorized by 

 the President of the American Society of 

 Microscopists, to announce to the mem- 

 bers, and to all others who may be inter- 

 ested, that the Executive Committee have 

 decided, by an almost unanimous vote, to 

 accept the invitation received from the 

 Tyndall Association of Natural Science, 

 of Columbus, Ohio, and to call the next 

 meeting of the Society at that place on 

 Tuesday, Aug. 9th, 1881 (the week pre- 

 vious to the meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, at Cincinnati). 



Permit me to add a word upon another 

 matter. The Proceedings of the Ameri- 

 can Society, which should have appeared 

 two months ago, have been unavoidably 

 delayed by circumstances which I shall 

 explain to members at the time of issuing 

 the volume. The latter is now in the 

 press and will be sent before the end of 

 the month. 



Albert H. Tuttle, Sec'y. 



Columbus, Ohio, March 1st, 1881. 



To THE Editor. — Your kind criticism 

 of my communication upon objectives, 

 which appeared in your February num- 

 ber, I have read with some care, 

 and (pardon me), I fail to see the 

 point. In that communication I was not 



* Report Department of Agriculture, 1879, 

 p. 413. Dr. Detmers' report is here dated 

 February 38th, 1880. 



writing with critical accuracy, nor, wai 

 writing upon the question of, " How we 

 see," or that of penetration. The remarks 

 upon these questions were incidental, 

 merely. As to the matter of definition 

 and form being the effect of light and 

 shade (not shadow), so to speak, I would 

 remark that whether the rays from the 

 mirror be oblique or direct, still, if not 

 direct, then by refraction and reflection, 

 they reach the optic nerve, or no sen- 

 sation of form is produced. And if 

 beyond the eye-piece a photographic 

 arrangement be placed, we get the form 

 fixed in light and shade, and call it a 

 photograph. But I cannot herein amplify 

 upon this question ; with your permission 

 I will hereafter give my ideas upon this 

 subject, making it, I hope, simple enough 

 to be understood by average people. 

 Respectfully, 



S. A. Webb 

 Oswego, N. Y., March i88i. 



NOTES. 



— A new edition of Rabenhorst's 

 Kryptogamen-flora is in course of pu- 

 blication. The several departments of 

 cryptogamic botany will be edited by 

 gentlemen of acknowledged ability. Each 

 volume will contain, besides the systematic 

 part, an account of the structure, life and 

 development of the forms described, and, 

 with the exception of the marine algae, 

 each genus will be figured. 



— Mr. L. R. Sexton announces a new 

 fine-adjustment for Gundlach's micros- 

 copes, consisting of "a combination of 

 two screws which give a resultant motion 

 equal to the difference in the threads em- 

 ployed," so that the adjustment is more 

 delicate than it is possible to have with 

 the ordinary screw, without a sacrifice of its 

 durability. The two screws can be made to 

 work independently, thus giving a more 

 rapid motion than the ordinary adjust- 

 ment, which is very convenient for low 

 powers, or they may act together, and 

 then the movement is much more delicate 



— We regret to hear that Index Medi- 

 cus is likely to suspend publication from 

 want of support. It is unquestionably 

 one of the most valuable publications that 

 the medical profession could have, and 

 yet while hundreds of utterly worthless 

 medical journals flourish, this, which has 

 an intrinsic value not easily over-estimated, 

 seems likely to be allowed to pass out of 



