Z30L0GY AND BOTANY, MICKOSCOPY, ETC. 
C71 
repeatedly made to test the slips, tlie water, brushes, and so on ; in 
every case they proved to be sterile. 
Experiments were first of all made with the hands in a normal state, 
that is, not artificially infected, and with a simple washing with hot soap 
and water, together with the use of the nail-brush and the nail-cleaner, 
spending from five to fifteen minutes in the operation of washing. Mr. 
Leedham-Green found that his hands proved to be sterile in only two 
cases. In all the other experiments the tubes were strongly infected. 
In one of the sterile cases it is to be noted that the hands had been 
disinfected an hour previously with soap, water, and turpentine, and as 
much as eighteen minutes had been spent in washing. Experiments 
were made with alcohol, as Furbringer has found that unless the fatty 
secretion of the skin be first removed, it is useless to attempt to kill 
the germs by antiseptic means, because the micro-organisms, protected 
by a thick layer of fat and epithelial debris , never came into actual 
contact with the antiseptics. In twelve experiments made, in some of 
which ten minutes were spent in washing, and four minutes with 
absolute spirit, the hands twice proved absolutely sterile, and once 
almost so; but in two of these cases the operator had not been actively 
engaged in his profession for some days previously. 
Mr. Leedham-Green’s results are as a whole so strikingly dissimilar 
from those of a number of other investigators, that the possibility of the 
accidental infection of his tubes was a point to be considered. However, 
he states that the whole of his control experiments remained sterile, and 
he gives other reasons also. If his experiments may be depended upon, 
it appears that the difficulty in sterilising the hands and skin has been 
very greatly underestimated. It cannot be said that any of the methods 
at present in use can be relied upon for absolute sterilisation. Although 
the use of alcohol will not accomplish all that has been claimed for it, 
it is nevertheless a valuable, if not the most valuable agent that we 
possess. Mr. Leedham-Green’s paper affords one of the most striking 
proofs of the fact that we are surrounded by countless hosts of microbes. 
Text-Book of Bacteriology.*' — Prof. E. M. Orookshank has just 
produced the fourth edition of his now well-known text-book, which, 
we learn from the title-page, has been reconstructed, revised, and greatly 
enlarged. Though nominally a fourth edition, the book is, the author 
says, practically speaking a new work. The progress of bacteriology 
has been so rapid that it has been necessary to entirely recast the text 
of the third edition. Prof. Orookshank points out that the most impor- 
tant researches conducted in bacteriology laboratories are those relating 
to the contagium. In many diseases of man and animals it has not been 
possible to identify the contagium with a bacterium, or indeed with any 
micro-organisms ; but when virus is chemically examined or investigated 
with a view to protective inoculation such researches are within the 
province of the bacteriologist. We have no doubt that the author is 
justified in his hope that the work will continue to be of use as a text- 
book for the bacteriological laboratory, and that it will be not only of 
scientific interest, but of practical value to medical officers of health and 
veterinary inspectors. 
* ‘A Text-Book of Bacteriology, including the Etiology and Prevention of 
Infective Diseases, &c./ 4th ed.. Loudon, 1896, xxx. and 715 pp., 273 figs. 
