1884.] 



MICEOSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



19 



journals, at home and abroad, references 

 to one of the "investigators" of this fair 

 city. The greater number of these refer- 

 ences have not been flattering in tone, 

 while others have been serious and learned 

 attempts to refute the conclusions and 

 teachings of the writer in question. 



Dr. RoUin R. Gregg is quite widely 

 known and quoted as an opponent of the 

 germ theory of disease, and as maintain- 

 ing that the bacteria of disease are only so 

 many varying forms of fibrine. It is not 

 my purpose to uphold or attack the germ 

 theory or the "science of fibrine;" but it 

 seems to me that those who are disposed 

 to take time to answer him, and others 

 who seriously say that he "may be right," 

 ought to know how he "investigates," 

 and then they may know better his ground 

 and better appreciate his conclusions ; then 

 they may say whether refutation is neces- 

 sary, or whether the germ theory will 

 shortly be overturned by him, or the "sci- 

 ence of fibrine" "open a new science to 

 the study of man." Dr. Gregg, by the 

 courtesy of the Buffalo Microscopical Club, 

 read before it recently a paper giving the 

 results of his summer's work on boiled 

 blood, rotting blood, and rotting fibrine. 

 The paper bore the title "The Bacteria or 

 Germ Theory of Disease Overturned." 

 Rotting blood and fibrine are pretty likely 

 places to find bacteria, but he found none 

 — all were varying forms of fibrine. The 

 Club appointed a committee to examine 

 the Doctor's evidence. Below is a state- 

 ment of what was discovered ; of what he 

 used to reveal his wonders, and how he 

 managed matters. 



The researches were consummated with 

 a Bausch and Lomb "model" stand and 

 a "professional" one-fourth-inch object- 

 ive. The material to be examined- — i. <?., 

 boiled blood, blood or fibrine which had 

 been rotting for a longer or shorter time — 

 was, usually, smeared on a gloss-slip with 

 a stick and dried, either quickly or slowly ; 

 the preparation was then ready for exami- 

 nation, which was done without cover and 

 often with direct sunlight from the mirror. 

 In this way he found all" the bacteria of 

 the catalogue and many more not men- 

 tioned by the "bacterists." There can be 

 no doubt of it ! He uses no staining agents 

 nor cultivation-experiments in the study of 

 these forms, but reasons from appearances 

 obtained as above specified. With such 

 childish work he claims to have over- 

 turned the work of masters, and moreover 

 has the boldness to publish such "inves- 

 tigations!" 



Bear with me while I state one particu- 



lar case to more clearly show the Doctor's 

 methods and reasoning : A drop of fresh 

 blood or of boiled blood, or of an exuda- 

 tion from a blister, is put on a slide and 

 slowly dried ; on examination in his usual 

 way certain dark lines appear forming a 

 net-work. Behold the spontaneous organ- 

 ization of fibrine! Again he will not be 

 convinced that drying has had anything 

 to do with his " net-work," but strengthens 

 his position by saying that when sunlight 

 is used for illumination he can see the 

 granules composing the fibrine threads. 



It is marvellous. I would not have men- 

 tioned this affair had I not thought it due 

 to the readers of his papers to know how 

 his "rough and ready " (Lancet) experi- 

 ments are performed. 



D. S. Kellicott. 

 Buffalo, N. Y., Dec. 21st, 1883. 



MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETIES. 



At a meeting of the Illinois State So- 

 ciety, held Nov. 9th, Dr. F. W. Mercer ex- 

 hibited two miniature incandescent Swan 

 lamps, capable of giving respectively two 

 and one-half and four candle power. 

 Their size is not larger than a pea, the 

 shape of one globular and the other some- 

 what conoidal ; one is used beneath the 

 stage for transparent objects, and the other 

 above for opaque objects. The incandes- 

 cence can be sustained by four Leclanche 

 cells for a period of half an hour, or by 

 means of a storage apparatus, which he 

 also exhibited, for a period of twelve hours. 

 The Doctor claims a superior clearness 

 with this means of illumination over that 

 which is obtained by much more expen- 

 sive and complicated devices. 



NOTES^ 



— The attention of readers of this num- 

 ber is especially called to the fact that sub- 

 scriptions must be paid strictly in advance, 

 and that the price will be advanced to $ i . 50 

 after the first day of April, when no sub- 

 scriptions at the old price will be taken. 



— Messrs. J. W. Queen & Co. have is- 

 sued a two-page circular calling attention to 

 three different series of mounted objects, 

 which, we doubt not, have been prepared 

 in response to a wide-spread demand. We 

 have frequently been asked for mounted 

 specimens of starches and adulterations 

 of food. A few sets we did prepare, but 

 not a sufficient number to meet the de- 

 mand. Messrs. Queen & Co. now offer a 



