1891.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 165 



Benzine as an Antiseptic. — In the Ci7tcinnati Lancet Clhiiciox 

 Feb. 7i 189I5 Di'- F- W. Langdon extols the virtues of common com- 

 mercial benzine as an antiseptic and parasiticide. Locally applied, he 

 has found it a cure for tinea versicolor and in furunculosis. It is also 

 the most effective agent for the destruction of the chigger or chigoe. 

 He suggests that it may also be useful, administered internally, in the 

 treatment of trichiniasis. It is very cheap, and the chief caution to be 

 remembered in its use is that its gas is highly explosive. 



Methyl Violet for Cancer. — Von Mosetig, at Vienna, claims that 

 methyl violet, injected into cancerous tissue, stops the growth of the 

 cancer cell without injuring the patient. Several cases of complete cure 

 are reported. Now, here is something tangible. Let us have more 

 injections, more facts. 



Seibert's Treatment of Diphtheria. — We lately noticed in the 

 Journal the method of treating diphtheria proposed by Dr. A. Seibert, 

 of New York. In the archives of Pediatrics for June, 1891 , he reports 

 thirty-five cases treated by the new method, with two deaths. In one 

 of the fatal cases the patient had laryngeal diphtheria, and in the other 

 the treatment was interfered with. In ten of the cases the disease was 

 proven to be genuine diphtheria by finding the Klebs-I^oeffler bacillus 

 in the pseudo-membrane. 



As before stated, the method consists in the submembranous injec- 

 tion of chlorine water at every point where the pseudo-membrane forms. 

 The efl:ect is prompt and decisive, and recovery is speedy and unat- 

 tended by symptoms of paralysis. The matter seems to us to merit the 

 most careful consideration. 



Counting Tubercle Bacilli. — The Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins 

 Hospital for May and June contains a paper by G. H. F. Nuttall, M. 

 D., on "A Method for the Estimation of the Actual Number of Tuber; 

 cle Bacilli in Tuberculous Sputum." Lack of space forbids an abstract 

 of the article, and we mention it simply to call attention to the fact that 

 methods hitherto employed are practically of no value. 



EDITORIAL. 



In another column of this issue appears an extended notice of the 

 coming Annual Meeting of the American Society of Microscopists. 

 This society, which we have seen steadily grow in the number of its 

 members since 1878, the year of its organization, has in view the desi- 

 rable end of bringing together those persons who have at heart the ad- 

 vancement of all branches of the science of microscopy. It thus exer- 

 cises a peculiarly instructive and interesting function, and that which 

 it accomplishes, it would be almost impossible to do in any other man- 

 ner. The meeting of the present year, on August 11, which is to be 

 held in Washington, D. C, promises to be particularly successful. 



Within the last few years the National Capital has come to be re- 

 garded, and justly, as a city pre-eminently fitted for the holding of con- 

 ventions. Many people who would hardly be persuaded to attend such 

 meetings ordinarily, with the incidental expense and loss of time from 

 business, would more willingly attend if to the main attraction were 

 joined the important secondary one of a visit to the political centre of 



