1881.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



151 



story, on microscopical evidence as 

 to the size of the blood-corpuscles. 



Fifth — In cases of innocent persons 

 wrongfully accused of murder, and 

 really stained with the blood of an 

 ox, pig, or sheep, testimony of ex- 

 perts, founded upon measurement of 

 the corpuscles, would be valuable, 

 but less conclusive, because, under 

 certain circumstances, human blood- 

 corpuscles may shrink to the size of 

 those of the ox, whilst under no 

 known condition do ox or pig cor- 

 puscles expand to the magnitude of 

 those in human blood. 



Sixth — In order to do away with 

 ingenious objections of lawyers that 

 the murdered person may have been 

 affected with some disease which al- 

 tered the size of his blood disks, or 

 that the articles of clothing, etc., up- 

 on which the stains were deposited 

 had produced, chemically or other- 

 wise, some similiar change in their 

 magnitudes, it is very important to 

 obtain, promptly, stains from the fresh 

 blood of the victim, made in the 

 presence of witnesses, upon portions 

 of the prisoner's clothing, or weapons 

 analogous to those upon which sus- 

 picious red spots are found when he 

 is arrested. When this cannot be 

 done, spots of the murdered person's 

 blood, sprinkled on white paper, and 

 fragments of his lungs and kidneys, 

 should be carefully preserved, the 

 former by rapid drying and the latter 

 by preservation in diluted alcohol. 

 These little precautions, which may 

 in any instance, prove to be of infi- 

 nite importance, should be earnestly 

 impressed upon coroners, district at- 

 torneys and policemen, throughout 

 the civilized world. 



EDITORIAL. 



Subscriptions. — Please observe 

 that when the Journal reaches you 

 in a pink wrapper, it is an intimation 

 that your subscription for the current 

 year has not been paid. 

 o 



Adulterations. — Only a very few 

 orders have been received for the 

 series of slides which were advertised 

 last month. As a number of our 

 readers may want the set, who have 

 failed to order as yet, we take occa- 

 sion to remind them that the time for 

 receiving orders is limited to the 

 present month. 



— — o 



New Micrographic Dictionary. 

 — A new (fourth) edition of the Micro- 

 graphic Dictionary is announced to be 

 published by John Van Voorst. It 

 is to be issued in monthly parts, cost- 

 ing 2S. 6d. each, of which there will 

 probably be twenty-one in all, con- 

 taing 53 plates, and more than 8oo 

 wood-cuts. Most of the plates have 

 been improved, some new ones add- 

 ed, and many new objects have been 

 figured and described. The editors 

 are J. W. Griffith, M. D., the Rev. M. 

 J. Berkely, M. A., and Prof. T. Ru- 

 pert Jones. We shall probably have 

 occasion to notice this work more at 

 length in a future issue of the Jour- 

 nal. 



The American Society of Mi- 

 CROSCOPISTS. — The fourth annual 

 meeting of this Society has just been 

 held, and for the purpose of publish- 

 ing a summary of the proceedings we 

 have, for the first time, delayed the 

 issue of this Journal several days 

 beyond the 15th of the month. 



The enforced absence of President 

 Hyatt was certainly a great dis- 

 appointment to the members, and it 

 is a matter of sincere regret that he 

 was prevented from delivering the 

 excellent and instructive address 

 which he had prepared for the 

 occasion. 



With the meagre information con- 

 cerning the meeting now in our 

 possession, it would be premature to 

 speak with great assurance as to the 

 importance of the acticles read at 

 Columbus ; but we may say with 

 confidence, that some of the articles 

 presented are of considerable scientific 



