482 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
(6) Lactoplienol gam. 38 grin, of white gum-arabic are first washed 
and then dissolved in 50 gran distilled water. The solution is mixed 
with 5 grm. glucose and 6 grm. lactophenol, and the whole filtered 
through glass-wool. 
(7) Potassium iodide-mercury-glycerin. Potassium iodide-mercury 
(KI -f- Hgl 2 ) is dissolved in hot pure glycerin. The solution, which 
should be very thick, has a high refractive exponent (%> = 1*78—1*80) 
and is more convenient to use than the thin watery solution ; moreover, 
specimens, notably diatoms, mounted therein keep much better. For 
closing the preparations the arnber-lac advocated by Behrens, or damar- 
lac diluted with 2 per cent, boiled linseed oil is recommended. 
Antiseptic Value of Sublimate Spray.* — M. P. Chavigny finds from 
experiments made with one per thousand sublimate solution used in the 
form of spray, that even when continued for periods longer than those 
adopted in practice this disinfectant fails to destroy microbic germs or 
to diminish their virulence. The author conceives the preventive action 
of sublimate to be due to the deposit of a thin layer of the antiseptic on 
the surface of the germ, which by cutting off the communication with 
the surrounding nutritive medium suspends the vital activity and 
development of the germ. Hence, if the ambient layer be removed the 
antiseptic property is lost, and the germ becomes free to develope. The 
author’s method was to contaminate plaster plates with infected dust, 
anthrax, St. py. aureus , potato bacillus, and then spray them with a 
freshly-made one per thousand solution of sublimate, to which was 
added 1 grm. of sea-salt and 5 ccm. of hydrochloric acid per litre. The 
spray was made with the small Geneste and Herscher apparatus at a 
■distance of 1*5 m. and maintained for 1-10 minutes. The plates were 
then covered with sterilised paper and allowed to dry. When dry 
the surface was scraped in places to get some dust, while on other parts 
a few drops of sulphate of ammonia solution were poured before the dust 
was removed. Cultivations made from the dust and examined at 24 and 
48 hours indicated that sprayings of a one per thousand solution of sub- 
limate confer merely a temporary protection, and this is likely to fail if 
the antiseptic layer be removed or become imperfect, so that a com- 
munication between the germ and the medium becomes established. 
Allusion is also made as to the effect of the spray on thin dry layers 
of tuberculous sputum. Guinea-pigs inoculated with this sprayed sputum 
died of tuberculosis in six weeks to two months. 
Mounting in Phosphorus.^ — Dr. A. M. Edwards uses the following 
method for mounting objects in phosphorus. Some pure phosphorus 
is melted under water and then violently shaken while cold water is 
added, until it breaks up into a fine sand. A few grains of this sand are 
heated with oil of cinnamon and then added to a solution of gum Thus in 
: alcohol. 
(6) Miscellaneous. 
Simple Apparatus for Generating Gaseous’ Formic Aldehyde.^ — 
Herr A. Dieudonne employed a soldering lamp filled with aceton-free 
* Ann. Inst. Pasteur, x. (1896) pp. 851-7. 
+ The Microscope, iv. (1896) pp. 55-6. 
t Arb. a. d. Kaiserl. Gesundheitsamte, xi. (1895) pp. 534-43 (1 fig.). See 
Gentralbl. f. Bakteriob u. Parasitenk., 2 te Abt., i. (1895) pp. 898-9. 
