1887] + MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 35 
and also by Selmi just after, and are treated of in Dr. Clifford Mitchell’s new book, The 
Physician’s Chemistry. Pantier lately claimed that these bodies are constantly being 
formed in life, and that their non-elimination or non-oxidation is the cause of many dis- 
eases, thus opening upa new pathology. Gautier’s remarkable communication regarding 
ptomaines and leucomaines, made January 12, 1886, to the French Academy of Med- 
icine (see Arch. Gin. des Med., No. 2, 1886), takes the ground that these by-products of - 
normal vital action came through a putrefactive rather than a combustive process, and he 
says : ‘ There would bea continual auto-infection from them if the skin, kidneys, bowels, 
and lungs did not act freely, and if the oxygen of the blood, which is their great enemy, 
were not continually supplied to the tissues.’ In July, 1884, I advanced the idea that 
many cases of peritonitis, septicaemia, puerperal fever, and analogous troubles were 
caused by ptomaines. The fatal tyrotoxicon from cheese, milk, picnic ice cream, etc., 
is first cousin and is being watched.—W. B. Clark, in Medical Current, vol. ttt, fp. 271. 
On the ptomaine question we find also the following : Sickness from the use of meat, 
milk, etc., formerly unheard of, is becoming alarmingly frequent. This is entirely 
unlike the well-known troubles from trichina, measely pork, etc., and will not be ren- 
dered harmless as those by any amount of cooking. Further, this is not caused by 
any micro-organism, according to our best authorities, but by a class of poisonous alka- 
loids known as ptomaines. The question now arises, how is it that these ptomaines 
have thus suddenly acquired such importance? The answer is, until recently the time- 
saving schemes were not in operation. The present patent process does not allow the 
animal time to cool, the meat is not left six weeks in pickle, nor dried and smoked 
a month or six weeks more. Now animals are killed, cut up at once, injected with a 
patent preserving fluid, smoked a few days, sacked, and put on the market. It is in 
this class of meats that ptomaines are most liable to form. If ever so free from decom- 
position when sent out, they are liable to decomposition, especially in warm weather. 
The numerous cases of ice-cream poisoning reported last summer were due to similar 
haste, as shown by Dr. Vaughan. (See this Journal, Jan.,'87, p. 16). 
In Europe similar cases from the use of sausage, fish, and other foods are reported, 
and it becomes important to urge that the dealers be placed under such restrictions as 
will insure the sale of only properly treated articles.—Dr. R. HY. Reed, Mansfield, Ohio, 
before the Mansfield Lyceum, Nov. ro, 1886. 
Germ of Laveran.—Dr. Osler, at a meeting of the Pathological Society of Philadel- 
phia, states that as a result of the study of over 50 cases of ague he finds the bodies 
of Laveran constantly present. He is convinced of their parasitic character, and 
confirms the observations of Laveran, Marchiafava, Celli, Sternberg; and Councilman, 
Pure air in mid-ocean.—Prof. F.S. Dennis in a trip across the Atlantic Ocean made 
tests of the ocean air. He used capsules of sterilized gelatin and exposed one to the 
air in his state-room. In 18 hours it showed over 500 points of infection. Capsules 
exposed on the promenade deck showed 5 or 6 points after ten days, and capsules ex- 
posed over the bow of the ship were entirely uncontaminated. These experiments 
show the germless condition of mid-ocean air.—Am. Practitioner. 
Microscope in brewery.—We were much interested in the following note from the 
English Mechanic and World of Science, in which magazine many things of interest 
to the student of natural science find a place. The author points out the great value 
of the microscope to the brewing trade, not but that a man can wash a barrel well 
enough without its aid, but that the master brewer by its help lifts his labor from the 
level with empirical soup-making. It is used to determine the purity of the air in the 
fermenting-room, used in examining water to detect organic impurities, a number of 
which are figured ; among them may be distinguished, algze, a rhizopod, S¢evor, a rotifer, 
a copepod, an ostracod, and some form of arthropod larva. The microscope is also 
of service in determining the quality of yeast, searching for the presence of such injuri- 
ous outsiders as bacteria, which cause brewers much trouble by the unhealthy fermen- 
tations they produce. He must usethe micrometer also. The healthy yeast cell should 
not be larger than ,J,, inch in diameter. The absence of any vacuole in the cell de- 
notes the cell to be too young; the presence of more than three vacuoles in a shriveled 
cell indicates it to be too old. The discovery of lactic and other ferments indicates 
that it is time to change the yeast, and examination determines the quality of the new 
change at once without the cost, perhaps, of experimental failure. 
A new experimental station at the sea-shore has been lately established by the Span- 
ish Government for the study of zoology and botany. 
