NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 
269 
nated witli flour dust, and, on inquiry, lie learned tliat the boy’s father 
was a pastry-cook. 
The difficulties which are involved in the study of bacteria arise 
partly from the gaps which appear in the classification of these 
minutest of all living organisms and the new forms which are con- 
tinually cropping up, and partly from the microscopes employed, 
although furnished with high powers, possessing little power of illu- 
mination and definition, whilst the investigation of bacteria is a matter 
of enormous difficulty on account of their extreme minuteness, their 
weak refracting power, and their motion. By Dr. Koch’s process, 
however, photographs of bacteria will be obtained showing not only 
their contours, but any flagella or other details, and thus correcting 
the false ideas founded on erroneous drawings, and paving the way to 
fresh discoveries. It is confidently predicted that in many kinds of 
pathogeny where a morphological distinction cannot be discerned, but 
which are the cause of complaints of a most diverse nature, there will 
be quite characteristic differences discovered. 
Dr. Haupt speaks in the highest terms of Dr. Koch’s method, but 
says that for the practical physician it is too tedious and troublesome. 
His modification if it consists in staining the whole fluid which 
contains the bacteria, instead of each preparation by itself. This 
involves but little expenditure of time and trouble, and can be done 
at the patient’s bedside or at the dissecting table if he be provided 
with a bottle in which to put the substance to be stained, and another 
containing the staining fluid. The microscopical examination may be 
subsequently made at any convenient time, and the bacteria are 
as clearly seen as when Koch’s method is used. 
The fluids which Dr. Haupt employed were carmine, eosin, rose 
de Magdala, h^ematoxylin, parme, anilin-violet, fuchsin, and ery thru- 
sin, and, except with the first two, he obtained good results. Haema- 
toxylin stained Micrococcus very quickly. He recommends as best 
anilin-violet, fuchsin, and especially erythrusin. 
Bacterium termo, though difficult of preparation, should be first 
experimented with, as what answers with it will succeed with all 
bacteria. Bacterium termo is easily procured by exposing a piece of 
raw meat placed with water in a porcelain cup to the sun for an hour 
or two, or letting it stand near a warm oven. When an opal-like 
scum has formed on the fluid, every drop is seen under the microscope 
to contain millions of these bodies. 
This or any other fluid containing bacteria (urine, serum, blood, 
&c.), should be put in a 10-gramme glass which has been carefully 
washed and rinsed with alcohol. The bottle should be a fourth or a 
fifth part filled, and the same quantity of a solution in water (well 
filtered) of the staining material added, and then, after being well 
shaken, it is to be corked and labelled. It is well to write on the 
label its contents, date, and hour. With some objects the staining 
is effected in five, ten, or fifteen minutes, others require twenty-four 
to forty-eight hours. After being assured by examination with the 
microscope that the result is satisfactory, a drop is then taken by 
means of a pipette from the bottom, and spread out well on a glass 
