14 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Jan 



ize the bromine. Schumberg- says use a solution made of 

 20 grams bromine with 20 g-rams bromide of potassium 

 dissolved in 100 g-rains water. Use this solution in the 

 proportion of 2 cc, to each litre, stir, let stand 5 minutes. 

 Add 9 per cent ammonia water to neutralize. The taste of 

 the water is not affected by this small amount of bromine 

 salt. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Amoeba Coli. — Amoeba have been found in the human 

 intestines associated with a special form of dysentery and 

 with abscess of the liver. It is believed that they g"ain 

 entrance to the system by m6ans of the water drank and 

 the uncooked veg-etables eaten. In the trip from the 

 intestines to the liver, it is supposed that they pass througfh 

 the vessels that drain into the portal vein. 



These Amoeba have been found in people who are not 

 suffering- from dysentery. It is quite conceivable that 

 they may enter the deeper layers of the mucosa and so 

 into the blood streams. The analog-y of the white corpus- 

 cles escaping- by diapedesis throug-h the blood-vessel wall 

 is very interesting-. That they are found in healthy intes- 

 tines is no strang-er than that the Klebs-Loeffler bacillus of 

 diptheria should be found in the mouths of healthy people. 

 A lowered vitality is necessary before these org-anisms 

 can work injury. 



A case of dysentery and liver-abscess is reported in "The 

 Lancet" for Dec. 11, 1897, of a Lascar, 19 years old, in 

 which 22 oz. of pus were aspirated from the right pleura. 

 On microscopic examination, pus cells, red and white 

 blood corpuscles, deg-enerate liver cells but no amoeba were 

 found. Later when a liver-abscess was opened they were 

 found actively moving- in the liver pus till two days after 

 the operation. Three weeks later the patient died from 

 exhaustion. Amoeba were also found in the lining- mem- 

 brane of the main abscess and in the pus from the three 

 patches of softening- in the liver. 



