1883.] Microscopy. 113 
favorable to some of them. Cohn has proved that bacteria 
producing acid fermentation, perish in liquids with alkaline reac- 
tion. Infectious bacteria may, however, multiply to a formidable 
extent on living mucous surfaces; witness the growth of the 
micrococcus of diphtheria, brought by the air into the air-passages ; 
also the bacterium of anthrax. The bacillus of tubercle, as Koch 
has lately shown, may be transmitted from one person to another 
by the air-passages. Professor Schnetzler thinks hay fever may 
also be due to bacteria entering the nose. While the development 
of bacteria on normal mucous surfaces is usually limited, millions 
of them are found in the dejections of healthy children.—£xg/ish 
Mechanic. 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MICROSCOPISTS, 
1882,—This is a welleprinted volume of 300 pages, containing 
valuable papers on improvements in the microscopes and in his- 
tological, botanical and zoological topics. Among the micro- 
scopical papers are the excellent address of the president, G. E. 
Blackham on the Evolution of the Modern Microscope ; an inter- 
esting memoir of Charles A. Spencer, by H. L. Smith, with arti- 
cles on light and illumination, by E. Gundlach; stereoscopic 
effects obtained by the high power binocular arrangement of 
Powell and Lealand, by A. C. Mercer; the improved Griffith 
Club microscope, by E. H. Griffith; A new freezing microtome, 
by T.. Taylor ; Modification of the Wenham half-disc illuminator, 
with an improved mounting, by R. Dayton; Micro-photography 
with dry-plates and lamp-iight, and its application to making 
lantern positives, by W. H. Walmsley; The Fasoldt stage micro- 
meter, by T. C. Mendenhall; Osmic acid, its uses and advantages 
in microscopical investigations, by T. B. Redding. On the con- 
ditions of success in the construction and the comparison of stand- 
ards of length, by W. A. Rogers. 
The botanical and general biological papers are: Microscopi- 
cal contribution; The vegetable nature of croup, by E. Cutter; 
Micro-organisms in the blood in a case of tetanus, by L. Curtis; 
Microscopic organisms in the Buffalo water-supply and in Niagara 
river, by H. Mills; Rhzsosolenia gracilis, n. sp., by H. L. Smith; 
Microscopic forms observed in water of Lake Erie, by C. M. 
Vorce; Sporadic growth of certain diatoms, and the relation 
_ thereof to impurities in the water-supply of cities, by J. D. Hyatt. 
The zodlogical, histological and physiological papers are on 
certain crustaceous parasites of fresh-water fishes, by D. S. Kell- 
icott—The termination of the nerves in the liver, by M. L. Hol- 
brook; Observations on the fat cells and connective-tissue cor- 
puscles of Necturus (Menobranchus), by S. H. Gage; The 
structure of the muscle of the lobster, by M. L. Holbrook; The 
wheel-like and other spicula of the Chirodota of Bermuda, by F. 
M. Hamlin; Fresh-water sponge by H. Mills; Polyzoa —Obser- 
3 
VOL. XVIL—NO. 1. 
