Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-02-18
MICROSCOPIC WONDERS.
CHAT WITH PRESIDENT COX, OF
 THE NEW YORK SOCIETY.

CHAT WITH PRESIDENT COX, OF
 THE NEW YORK SOCIETY.
 Methods of Measuring Minute Objects.
 Work Done fin Dissecting and Examining
 AIicrobes-Mysteriea of the "Brownian
 Movement"-Salt Crystals.
 conversation at his home in the Wesrmore- land, spoke of the work of the New York Microscopical society for 1857.
 Mir. Cox first mentioned the vast improve ment in the methods of measuring micro scopic objects. This is done by rulings on glass, which are produced by complicated but wonderfully delicate machines. They are constructed so as to accurately divide an inch or any other unit of measurement into any desired number of parts, as, for instance, HOO of an inch, 1-10O0 of an inch, and even 1-1O,000 of an inch. Only three of these machines, however, have produced any note worthy work. One is the invention of Pro- lessor Rogers, of Harvard college, another that of MT. Fasoldt, of Albany, and a third that of the professor of physics at Johns Hop kins university. These three machines do different kinds of work, though ruling parallel lines by means of fine diamond point upon glass or metal, to be used as micrometers which are to objects under the microscope similar to the scale of inches portrayed at the bottom Of maps and architectural plans. The finest rulings thus far produced by any of the machines are at the rate of something like 100000 to the inch. Some idea of the closeness of the ruled lines can be obtained from considering that 2,000 such lines would N,,Ixy fl<,e~ l-I ness of sheet of ordinary letter paper.
 With this explanation of the method of measuring objects under the microscope, Mir. Cox started in to tell some of the things members of the society had done in the last year toward dissecting and examining mi crobts which cause and spread diseases like cholera, diphtheria, yellow fever or malaria. In every day English he explained that the microbe and the bacillus, the microbes twin brother, are names for exceedingly minute organisms which exist in infinite numbers wherever they find their particular foods, either in the liquids of the human body in both health and disease, in the tissues of ami ma1s, in stagnant water and sewerage. In dried and dormant state they even float in the air, from which they descend into their proper habitats. Thus they cause and spread diseases like cholera, diphtheria, yellow fever and malaria. Each disease has a mi crobe or germ peculiar to it, and which may be easily distinguished by the microscope from nearly all other microbes Specimens of all these microbes have been collected by a member of the society and sown upon a gelatine surface, just as farmer sows oats or wheat. They will grow up as sorts of fungus, and even to the naked eye they will then be as distinguishable, one sort from an- other, as oats are from wheat, or wheat from rye, or rye from barley. Professor Charles B. Pellew, of Columbia, is the member of the society who has thus sown little fields of diphtheria, consumption, cholera, yellow fever and, other dangerous diseases. They are under cultivation like grasses in rockery. These little grass plots of the ter rible diseases are glass covered, and whole cemeteries are represented in them.
 MT. Cox referred to one difficulty the microscopists had experienced in experiment. ing with the fungi of these terrible diseases At certain stage, or rather in the advanced growth of the fungi, new microbes are shed, which are infinitely smaller than the original microbe. These microbes have a shell like a hazel nut, and about as hard, and even after they are boiled at g great heat some micro scopists differ as to whether the disease germ has been destroyed. Microbes are like potato bugs. They encircle the globe. You can scrape them off your tongue. Microbes de- stroy tfle teeth. They are with us and about us morning, noon and night. They are even in the medicine bottles in the druggists shops. MT. Cox then told of the discovery of one of his brother microscopists who ex- amincd number of vials on the shelf of an up town druggist. At the bottom of the vials a sediment was found which, under the powerful gaze of the microscope, turned out to be microbes, and any prescription prepared with the liquid in the vials would harm in- stead of heal the patient, He referred to this to show the care that all druggists should ex- srcise in keeping fresh medicines in their vials.
 MT. Cox then told how the microscope had shown what is known as the Brownian move ment to be mysterious trembling, or half rotary motion, which seems to take place necessarily in any sort of substance, if finely enough divided and held in suspension in liquid of suitable specific gravity. "For example," he said, Ca little gamboge rubbed up ill water will exhibit an activity among it's microscopic particles which will give them the appearance of being alive when looked at through the microscope. No one knows the cause of this motion nor it's limi- tations as to time. have specimen of this sort which has been under observation for thirteen and a half years, and, as far as known, has never shown any sign of stacking in all that time"
 Speaking of the microscope on minerals, MT. Cox said that many crystalline sub stances, particularly quartz, abound in small cavities, or "bubbles," left when crystalliza- tion took place. Sometimes these are empty. Sometimes they are filled with gas. Often they are filled with brine, in which cube of salt is held in suspension. If the cavity and its contained salt crystal are exceedingly small, Brownian movement occurs in the salt particle and affords a very interesting object for the microscope. The quartz of ordinary granite is generally rich in such moving ''in- clusions," and thus thing which is ordinarily regarded as actually inert is seen to be filled with activity. This is one reason why gran ite used in the construction of buildings goes to pieces in a fire, for the heat expands the liquid or gas contained in the cavities, and causes such pressure as breaks the stone asunder. The presence of the brine in these cavities is regarded as evidence that the granite, which was formerly looked upon as an igneous rock, is really sedimentary. One of the interesting sights is to see mem- bers of the society cut fly, a beetle, or house roach into thousand pieces every one of