S32 
THE MEDITERI AN SAN NATURALIST 
silicates at a temperature at which, these com- 
pounds of carbon are decomposed. 
Alessandro Cruto, the real discoverer, and a 
man of very fertile inventive genius, specifies two 
distinct methods of obtaining the carbon; either in I 
very thin lamelle , or in the form of wire. In 
order to obtain the carbon in lamelle, he places a 
long porcelain tube, glazed internally, in an 
upright position in a furnace, in such a manner as 
to receive intense heat in its medial portion, which 
becomes incandescent. A gaseous current of either 
a hydrocarbon or a chloride of hydrogen is brought 
through a tube, provided with a cork or India- 
rubber stopper, fitting into the lower end of the 
porcelain tube. At the upper end of this latter is 
a sort of metallic cover, with an India-rubber con- 
nection, and with an aperture in it, to be able to 
watch the progress of the operation. 
The bicarburet of hydrogen or other gas in 
passing through the highly heated zone of the tube 
is decomposed; in the case of the bicarburet of 
hydrogen this is resolved into protocarburet of 
hydrogen, which is evolved as a gas, and carbon, 
which adheres to the internal surfaces of the porce- 
lain tube in the condition of uniform, brilliant thin 
lamelle. Thus obtained, the lamellae of carbon 
can be easily cut > ith a knife just like gold-leaf, 
and, moreover, they can be bent in the shape of the 
letter U without breaking. 
When the carbon is required in the form of wire 
(as was applied by Cruto for incandescent lamps) 
he covers an extremely fine metallic wire with a 
very thin surface of one of the silicates mentioned 
above (1). This metal wire, being placed inside a 
glass tube, through which is brought a gaseous 
hydro-carbon, he passes a current of electricity 
through the wire sufficiently strong to decompose 
the gas, whereupon the carbon adheres to the 
surface of the wire, and possesses all the identical 
properties of that of the lamelle. 
Turin, 3rd February 1893. 
G. Jervis. 
(I) A few months later Cruto dispensed with 
the silicate coating , as superfluous. 
The Natural History of Certain Fevers 
occurring in the Mediterranean 
BY 
Stjbg. Cart. hi. Louis Hughes, AM.S. 
( Continued from page 327) 
Having now described the fast growing baciilus 
of Enterica (typhiod fever) and the slow growing 
streptococcus of Mediterranean fever, I pass :: r :> 
i the third fever on the list, the proximate came of 
j which differs entirely from these, as it belongs more 
to the animal than to the vegetable class of 
parasites. 
III. Ague or Intermittent Fever : — 
This fever so common in Italy and other parrs of 
the Mediterranean does not at 'Tesent exist in an 
endemic state in Malta, though there is reason to 
believe that it formerly prevailed on the Mars a 
and in the valleys of Misida. Wied Emtahlep and 
Wied Gineyna, before these lost their marshy 
character by being drained. The proximate cause 
of this fever, discovered by Laveran in 1880 and 
named the plasmodium or haematazoon of malaria 
belongs to the class of sporazoa or coccidia. As 
the organism has been found present in the blood 
of ague patients in France, Algiers, Germany. 
Austria, Russia, America, India and elsewhere, its 
presence is so easily demonstrated, it has such a pe- 
culiar relationship to quinine (the specific remedy 
for ague) and as it is not found present in the blood 
of patients suffering from other diseases, there can 
scarcely be a doubt that it is the true cause of the 
febrile condition termed ague or marsh ever. In 
the blood they present four different forms which 
in spite of the variety of their appearances consti- 
tute probably not different species of parasites but 
successive stages or states of the same polymor- 
phous parasite and have according to Golgi definite 
relations to the access or variation of the. clinical 
paroxysms of the pyrexia. 
(a) Spheroidal forms : — These are the most fro 
quent appearances and they may be seen as tran- 
sparent, hyaline colourless amoeboid elements 
J in the centre of the red blood corpuscles either 
siugly or associated, to the number of even four. 
They are very small at first, but gradually 
grow until they completely till the red blood 
