ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
129 
unselfish thoughtfulness for interests other than his own, and a sense of 
humour which, when needed, led him to desert his usual staid demeanour 
for the merriment of the moment, endeared him to all his friends. 
Angling and Microscopy. — A “ microscopical evening ” could, wo 
should have thought, hardly be looked for at an angling society, but the 
following appears in ‘ Flood and Field ’ of the 29th November, 1890 : — 
“ Gresham Angling Society. — There was a good attendance again on 
Tuesday, with Mr. Vail in the chair. This being a { Microscopical 
Evening,’ Dr. Brunton and Messrs. Norman, Parker, and Bentley 
showed a number of interesting subjects. Among other objects, Dr. 
Brunton exhibited a hank of so-called silk , sold by City houses for fly- 
tying, &c. Under the Microscope this proved to be nothing but jute, a 
fact which explains the frequent breaking away of large fish, aud the 
consequent loss of tackle, temper, &c.” 
The Microscope and the McKinley Tariff. — Among numerous ex- 
amples of the mischievous working of the McKinley tariff, the New 
York 1 Nation ’ cites the instance of Microscopes. Since the branch 
of medical science known as bacteriology assumed so much prominence, 
these articles have risen in the United States from the rank of a toy to 
that of the most valuable anil important of all medical instruments. 
Meanwhile a foolish legislature has been doing its best to make Micro- 
scopes artificially dear, and more and more difficult to procure. It was 
bad enough before the new tariff ; but it is now worse. In spite of the 
touching appeals of eminent medical men, a Microscope which could 
be bought in Germany for 94 dollars now costs in America over 150 
dollars. This is but one of many examples given of how the tariff is 
felt to be affecting the vital interests of the American people. 
£. Technique.* 
Cl) Collecting Objects, including Culture Processes. 
Experiments on Cultivation Media for Infusoria and Bacteria.f — 
In his experiments with anthrax, Dr. Hafkine obtained varying results ; 
thus when cultivated in the aqueous humour of rabbits, guinea-pigs, or 
dogs, sometimes copious development occurred, but sometimes it alto- 
gether failed. When sown with typhoid bacillus the inhibitive action 
of the humour was very manifest, reducing the number of viable bacilli 
from 1880 to 7 in four hours. This result is explained by the author on 
the supposition that the bacilli, which had been cultivated for a long 
time in pepton bouillon, had not yet become acclimatized to the new 
medium. For by gradually adding an increasing amount of aqueous 
humour to the pepton bouillon, in twelve successive generations a strong in- 
crease in fresh humour was eventually obtained, indeed it was greater than 
in the bouillon. Control experiments made with bacilli obtained directly 
from a typhoid patient, behaved in a manner analogous to the artificial 
* This subdivision contains (1) Collecting Objects, including Culture Pro- 
cesses; (2) Preparing Objects; (3) Cutting, including Imbedding and Microtomes ; 
(4) Staining and Injecting ; (5) Mounting, including slides, preservative fluids, &c . ; 
(6) Miscellaneous. 
f Annales de l’lnstitut Pasteur, iv. (1890) p. 363. See Centralbl. f. Pakteriol. u. 
Parasitenk., viii. (1890) p. 435. 
1891. K . 
