ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
259 
The attempt to make agar media with coco-milk instead of meat- 
broth failed. 
The cultivation of micro-organisms shows that on the whole this 
fluid was a favourable nutritive medium. There was no success with 
B. cholerae asiat., B. anthracis , or gonococci. Most other organisms 
bred with facility, and the medium seems to afford, in the quantity and 
form of the sediment, a criterion for distinguishing between B. entericus 
and B. coli commune. 
Besides these two organisms, B. mallei, B. diphtherise, B. pyocyaneus, 
St. pyogenes , St. pyogenes aureus , albus, and cereus, Diplococcus cholerse 
gallinarum , B. cholerse suum , and Vibrio Metsch. were cultivated with 
success. 
Alkalinity and Liquefaction of Gelatin.* — Dr. Eug. Frankel has 
observed that the rapidity of the occurrence of liquefaction, other things 
being equal, was subject to a considerable amount of variation owing to 
different methods of preparing gelatin, and that the variable amount of 
alkali must be considered responsible for these fluctuations in the lique- 
faction period. The author found that by increasing the alkalinity of 
the nutrient gelatin the occurrence of liquefaction could be considerably 
hastened without the characteristic kind of liquefaction being in any 
way interfered with. It would appear that the optimum amount of 
alkali to produce the optimum growth varies from O' 5-1 *5 per cent, 
soda, the mean being 1 per cent. 
The varying absence or presence of the scum on bouillon and lique- 
fied gelatin cultures is, the author thinks, to be ascribed to peculiarities 
in the composition of the gelatin, and he states that the different degrees 
of alkalinity can be produced by using a saturated solution of sodium 
carbonate. 
Chamberland Filter.f — On account of the bad quality of the drink- 
ing water in Havana, many families make use of the Chamberland filter 
in order to purify it. Drs. E. Acosta and F. Grande Rossi have found 
from an examination of these filters as supplied by the trade that they 
are quite untrustworthy and are therefore dangerous on account of their 
supposed safety. For domestic purposes Chamberland filters should be 
first submitted to an examination ; if not, the proper course is to boil the 
water first. 
Beach, B. S. — Histology, Pathology, and Bacteriology. A Manual. 
Philadelphia, 1892, 165 pp. 
Houston, A. C. — Note on Von Esmarch’s Gelatin Roll Cultures. 
Edinburgh Med. Journ., 1892, pp. 552-4. 
Schutz, J. L. — A Rapid Method of making Nutrient Agar-agar. 
Bull. Johns Hopkins Hosp., 1892, p. 92. 
(2) Preparing: Objects. 
Demonstrating Continuity of Protoplasm.^ — Mr. S. Le M. Moore 
states that a convenient way of demonstrating the continuity of proto- 
* Deutsch. Med. Wochenschr., 1892, No. 46. See Centralbl. f. Bacteriol. u. Para- 
sitenk., xii. (1892) pp. 827-8. 
t Cronica Medico-quirurgico de la Habana, 1892, No. 18. See Centralbl. f. 
Bacteriol. u. Parasitenk, xii. (1892) p. 883. 
X Journ. of Bot., xxxi. (1893) pp. 51-2. 
