1898.J MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 145 



under clothing- during- which the hairs conveniently act as 

 anchors. 



The Skin.— Nikola Tesla says that from 4,000 to 7,000 

 microbes lig-ht on every square foot of the human body 

 every 24 hours. Examined under the microscope the skin 

 would swarm with millions of microbes which feed upon 

 the skin and destroy its freshness producing yellowness 

 and wrinkles. He directs thorough washing daily and rub- 

 bing with alcohol. He has also invented a battery to drive 

 them away into space with great violence. 



The Microscope Inadequate. — As in small-pox, rabies, 

 scarlet fever, typhus fever, and certain other infectious 

 diseases, the efforts heretofore made to demonstrate the 

 specific a^tiological agent in foot-and-mouth disease have 

 bee unsuccessful. The carefully conducted investigations 

 of Loflfler and Frosch also failed to demonstrate the pres- 

 ence of any specific micro-organism in the lymph drawn 

 with proper precautions from the vesicles about the mouth 

 or udder of infected cows. Cultures in various media 

 inoculated with this lymph remained sterile and the micro- 

 organisms could be demonstrated by the use of the micros- 

 cope, in stained preparations. Nevertheless, experiments 

 showed that this lymph was infectious material and that 

 calves inoculated with a very small amount of it invariably 

 developed the diseasein two or three days. From which 

 we are sure that there exist organisms too small to be 

 recognized by the microscope as at present developed. 



Training Needed. — For the untrained eye the micro- 

 scope is little betterthan a toy, and it may even be regarded 

 as a dangerous instrument, because of the inevitable mis- 

 takes which the novice will make if he undertakes to 

 decide questions of diagnosis by the use of high-power oil- 

 immersion objectives without having had the necessary 

 training for such delicate work. In blood examinations, 

 especially, considerable experience is necessary in order 

 to give value to the evidence afforded by a microscopical 

 investigation. It is a very easy thing for the non-expert 

 to overlook the malarial parasite, and still easier to mistake 



