too 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 472 



While reminding one forcibly of some monstrous fossil 

 bryozoan, it seems improbable that it is such, neither is it a 

 plant, nor a mollusk, as I believe. Possibly it is the case of 

 some ancient worm. I have shown the specimen to eastern 

 as well as western geologists and botanists, besides sending' 

 drawings and descriptions of it to others, who pronounce 

 it entirely new to them. As far as my own experience goes, 

 I have neither seen anything of the kind in any of our large 

 eastern museums nor have seen anything published relating 



Pig. 3. — Diagram cl another form of Deyll's Corkscrew, as sketched In the 

 field. 



to it, and I feel reasonable confidence in offering a notice of 

 what I believe to be a new paleontological specimen, trust- 

 ing that, if nothing more, it may elicit information on the 

 matter from anyone who has it to offer. 



Irwin H. Baebour. 



CONFIEMATION OF THE DISCO VEEY OF THE IN- 

 FLUENZA BACILLUS. 



To Dr. Pfeiffer of Berlin is due the discovery of the influ- 

 enza bacillus. Dr. Eitasato has cultivated it to the fifth 

 generation. Koch has shown, in an article not yet published, 

 how pure cultures of tubercle bacilli can be obtained directly 

 from the sputum. Kitasato has succeeded in employing the 

 same method with the influenza bacilli. According to him, 

 the single colonies are so uncommonly small that they can 

 be easily overlooked, so that former investigators may have 

 failed to see them. The colonies do not flow together as in 

 Other kinds of bacteria, but always remain separated ; this is 

 so characteristic that the influenza bacilli can be distinguished 

 from all other bacteria with certainty. 



The same bacilli have been found in the blood of influenza 

 patients by Dr. Canon. Dr. Koch has compared these with 

 the micro-organisms discovered by PfeifPer, and pronouT>'-- 

 them identical. 



And now Dr. Canon has gone still f"-'' 

 ceeded in cultivating the influenza bi 



of patients attacked with the disease, ^u is 



especially difficult since the bacilli in ^^ju-drops are 



very few in number, and the colonies, on account of their 

 fineness, are concealed through the coagulated blood. The 

 blood therefore was not inoculated in tubes upon glycerin or 

 sugar-agar, but in the Petrian " Schalen." A great quantity 

 ^as employed. By this method there was not only a greater 



ibability of preserving colonies, but also the possibility of 

 tually seeking out the colonies with the microscope. 

 > blood is taken in the following manner: a finger-tip 

 -sed with sublimate, alcohol, and ether in the usual 

 ' Deutsche Med. Woohensohrlft, Jan. 21, 1898. 



way; then with a red hot needle the finger is pierced; an 

 assistant presses the blood out of the opening in drops, being 

 careful that they remain globular in form; from eight to 

 twelve drops are placed upon the Petrian "Schale," and 

 they are heated in a temperature of 37° C. The colonies 

 show a slight development after twenty-four hours; in forty- 

 eight hours they are distinctly seen. They are like those 

 cultivated by Pfeiffer from sputum of influenza patients. In 

 the cultures from the blood the colonies often lie close upoa 

 one another. The pure cultures from these colonies have 

 the same appearance as those Kitasato has described. 



Dr. Canon cultivated influenza bacilli from the blood of six 

 patients, and in all the bacilli in the blood preparation were 

 few in number and separated. And thus it appears that in 

 those cases where the bacillus is wholly separated in the 

 blood preparation, a sure diagnosis of influenza is given. 



A. MacDonald. 



Georgetown Medical School, Washington, D.C. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The University of Edinburgh in June, 1891, conferred upon 

 Professor Simon Newcomb the honorary degree of doctor of laws 

 {in absentia). Professor Newcomb was also elected, in June, 

 1891, an honorary member of the Royal Institution of Great Brit- 

 ain. 



— At a meeting of the trustees of Johns Hopkins University, 

 Dec. 15, 1891, it was determined to proceed to construct an aca- 

 demic hall on the property belonging to the university, at the cor- 

 ner of Monument and Garden Streets, running back to Little Ross 

 Street. The trustees are enabled to take this important step by 

 the gift of the late John W. McCoy, who made the university his 

 residuary legatee. Sufficient funds have been received from his 

 estate for the erection of a building which will furnish rooms for 

 the classes in languages, history, and philosophy, with space for 

 the present requirements of the library, and an assembly-room 

 which will hold over six hundred persons. The trustees voted 

 that the building should be known, in honor of the munificent 

 donor, as McCoy Hall. The piece of ground on which the new 

 hall is to be constructed is 100 x 185 feet, and is now taken up 

 with residences used for purposes of the university. Messrs. 

 Baldwin and Pennington have been selected to draw up the plans 

 for the building. 



— On 13th of May, 1890, while makins a professional call in the 

 outskirts of the town, B. H. Hartwell, M.D., of Ayer, Mass., was 

 summoned into the adjacent woods by a messenger, who stated 

 that her mother was " burned alive." In a paper read before the 

 Massachusetts Medico-Legal Society, and published in the Boston 

 Medical and Surgical Journal, Dr. Hartwell says: -'Hastily 

 driving to the place indicated (about forty rods distant) a human 

 body was found in the actual state of conflagration. The body 



-v-ju, and both legs. The flames reached from twelve to mteen 

 inches above the level of the body. The clothing was nearly all 

 consumed. As I reached the spot the bones of the right leg broke 

 with an audible snap, allowing the foot to hang by the tendons 

 and muscles of one side, those of the other side having burned 

 completely off. Sending my driver for water and assistance, I 

 could only watch the curious and abhorrent spectacle, till a com- 

 mon spading fork was found with which the fire was put out by 

 throwing earth upon it. The flesh was burned from the right 

 shoulder, exposing the joint from the abdomen, allowing the in 

 testines to protrude, and more or less from both legs. The leg 

 bones were partially calcined. The clothing unburned consisted 

 of parts of a calico dress, cotton vest, woollen skirt, and thick, 

 red, woollen undergarment. The subject of the accident was n 

 wotnan, forty-nine years of age, about five feet five inches in 



