1890.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 139 



(i) The bacillus brought to the bottom of the scale of descending 

 variation, non-virulent, but still with vaccinal properties. 



(2) The bacillus partially revivified by ascending variations, and 

 again capable of killing an adult guinea pig, and even a rabbit, but 

 ineffective towards ruminants, as horses, though highly vaccinal towards 

 them. 



(3) The bacillus whose revivification has been rendered complete, 

 that is, is mortal to the sheep. This type is probably still only vaccinal 

 to the cow or the horse. 



It will be remembered that the non virulent bacilli were obtained by 

 cultivations brought into contact with compressed oxj'gen. To restore 

 the virulence it is necessary to add blood to the cultivation in contact 

 with greatly rarified air. — Ciniiptes Ixefuhts^ 18S9, p. 597- 



Sources of Puerperal Wound Infection. — A paper with the 

 above title was read before the Kings County Medical Society Decem- 

 ber 17, 1S89, and is published in the Brooklyn Medical Jotirnal {ox 

 April, 1890, p. 213. We abstract some deductions and practical points. 

 The old question of the identity of the streptococcus of pus, puerperal 

 fever, and erysipelas is discussed, and the weight of quoted authority 

 and experiment seems in favor of identity, though it may be that vari- 

 ous microbes are competent to produce the symptoms of puerperal 

 fever. So called anto-infection from germs in the normal vaginal 

 secretions is denied. The symptoms may be induced, or simulated, 

 by ptomaines inhaled in sewer gas ; but symptoms so caused quickly 

 subside on removal of the cause. 



The practical point is that infection comes from without. What- 

 ever the pathogenetic agent, it is introduced in the patient's blood by 

 the non-sterilized hand of the attendant or nurse coming in contact 

 with an abrasion on the cervix or vaginal wall. Thus in 427 confine- 

 ments in the Dresden clinic, in which no vaginal examinations and no 

 irrigations w^ere made, onlv ii'V P^^' cent, ever had a temperature above 

 the normal. 



We have long thought that the vaginal injections, as administered by 

 the average monthly nurse, are much more dangerous than useful, and 

 this confirms our view. 



Now let us reduce examinations during labor to the minimum, and, 

 when obliged to make an examination, make our hands thoroughly 

 aseptic, and we may hope for a great reduction in the number of cases 

 of puerperal fever. 



Technical Methods for the Central Nervous System. — In the 

 same number of the same journal is a paper by E. H. W^ilson, M. D,, 

 read before the Brooklyn Medical Microscopical Society, December 4, 

 1889. Space will not permit quotation ; but it is of special value be- 

 cause it collates the tried and approved methods of Golgi, Weigert, 

 Grenadier, Fleschsig, Freud, and Upson for staining sections of the 

 central nervous system, and omits methods tried and rejected. 



Plasmodium Malarise.— According to the Medical News., the 

 Vienna bacteriologists have settled that malaria is caused by Plasmo- 

 dlum tnalarlce. It takes up its abode in the red blood corpuscle. At 

 first it is only one-fifth the size of the corpuscle, but as it grows it en- 

 tirely fills the corpuscle, and then breaks up into a number of daughter 

 cells that repeat the process of growth and division. The use of quinine 



