SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
209 
care by the celebrated Italian ethnologist, and upon which his well-known 
researches into the history of the races of southern Europe have been 
mainly founded, will prove a valuable acquisition to the already extensive 
series in the Hunterian Museum. 
The Atmospheric Germ Theory . — The atmospheric germ theory has not 
received much support by the recent researches of Dr. A. Ransom, who read 
a paper on the subject before the Literary and Philosophical Society 
of Manchester, at a meeting on February 22. The author gave the 
following summary of the results of his experiments : — 1. In 1857, glass 
plates covered with glycerine had been exposed in different places and 
examined microscopically. Amongst others, in the dome of the Borough 
Gaol, to which all the respired air in the building is conducted, organised 
particles from the lungs and various fibres were found in this air. 2. During 
a crowded meeting at the Free Trade Hall air from one of the boxes was 
drawn for two hours through distilled water, and the sediment examined after 
thirty-six hours. The following objects were noted :-^Fibres, separate 
cellules, nucleated cells surrounded by granular matter, numerous epithelial 
scales from the lungs and skin. 3. The dust from the top of one of the pillars 
was also examined, and in addition to other objects, the same epithelial 
scales were detected. 4. Several of the specimens of fluid from the lungs 
were also searched with the microscope. In all of them epithelium in dif- 
ferent stages of deterioration was abundantly present, but very few spores 
were found in any fresh specimen. On the other hand, after the fluid had 
been kept for a few hours, myriads of vibriones and many spores were 
found. In a case of diphtheria, confervoid filaments were noticed, and in 
two other cases, one of measles and one of whooping cough, abundant 
specimens of a small-celled torula were found, and these were seen to 
increase in numbers for two days, after which they ceased to develop. 
These differences in the nature of the bodies met with probably show some 
difference in the nature of the fluid given off ; but it was pointed out that 
they afford no proof as yet of the germ theory of disease. They simply 
show the readiness with which aqueous vapour of the breath supports fer- 
mentation, and the daDgers of bad ventilation, especially in hospitals. 
Hygienic Influence of the Air of Hospitals . — At the meeting of the 
French Academy, March 14, M« Dumas presented a paper in which tie 
author made some remarks on the danger, in a hygienic point of view, 
which results from the miasmata derived from the air of hospitals. The 
author called attention to the advisability of purifying the air expelled from 
hospital wards, either by means of heat or by some other process. In con- 
nection with the subject, M. Henri Saint-Claire Deville remarked on this 
subject that, from experiments made by M. Pasteur upon air expelled from 
hospitals during the last cholera epidemic, it was observed that some 
portions of this air were acid and some were alkaline, and that the presence 
of all kinds of spores had been remarked in it. M. Saint-Claire Deville 
thinks it would be advantageous to burn this air before it be expelled into 
the atmosphere. 
Inoculation of Pulmonary Tubercle . — At the meeting of the Royal Insti- 
tution of Lombardy, on Jan. 27, Dr. Biffi then brought forward the results of 
some recent researches on inoculation of pulmonary tubercle which he had 
VOL. IX. — NO. XXX Y. 
P 
