NEWS AND SUNDRIES. 
461 
number of cattle. The plans and specifications for the government 
quarantine buildings at this point, and at Baltimore, Boston and 
Portland have been approved by the Treasury Department, and 
contracts for their erection will be let out as soon as a reasonable 
time has elapsed for the reception of bids. The Treasury Cattle 
Commission had a session in Washington last Saturday, the full 
Board being present, to decide upon the details of the work. 
Nothing will be done toward a quarantine station at Philadelphia 
this winter.— Breeder's Gazette. 
The Microbes of Disease. —Dr. E. Salmon, while speaking 
for a few moments at a recent meeting of the N. Y. Microscopical 
Society, incidentally made some allusions to some observations 
tending to cast doubt upon the supposed bacillii of tuberculosis. 
In his own experiments he found a diplococcus form in a rabbit 
affected with tubercular disease, which seemed to be the same as 
a diplococcus which had been previously described as the cause of 
tuberculosis. Koch had described a totally different form—a true 
bacillus. Later observers have failed to discover either form.— 
Microscop. Journal. 
Medicated Moss-Peat Powder. —Dr. Neuberg has recently 
introduced in the clinic of Professor Esmarch, of Kiel, a method 
of wound-dressing to which he was led in the following way : 
Two years ago a laborer one day appeared who had sustained a 
compound fracture of both bones of the forearm eight or ten 
days previously, with considerable laceration. He had got a 
comrade to surround the whole forearm at once with a thick 
paste of peat mould, on which was laid a rough spiint of wood. 
When he came to the clinic he was in good general health, and 
on cleaning off the mould the wound was found to be healing 
beautifully, without any sign of suppuration. A Listerian dress¬ 
ing was applied, and the limb better fixed, and the man made a 
good recovery. Dr. Neuberg was led to investigate the proper¬ 
ties of peat mould with reference to wound-dressing, and lie found 
that the dust resulting from the manufacture of blocks of peat 
with a circular saw (as carried on in Schleswig-Holstein), and 
which is very light in weight and in color, has a powerful affinity 
for ammonia, carbonate of ammonia, and bad-smelling materials 
