The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-03

, ed scattered bits; the lock-jaw germ resembles a pin; the diplococci of pneu monia are like berries in pairs, whence their name--and so it goes each known microbe having distinction and name
 Equally practical In their everyday application are the microscopical in- vestigations of the general laborato- ries, and that of the City Board of Health. Water examinations are made, and drugs and foods and manufactures tested for deleterious admixtures. .byp, hh. far mpuaut timvoJoCtheoetah Adulterated spices and teas are readily detected by the microscope, consisting as they principally do, of stems and foreign leaves. Butter is distinguished from oleo by the arrangement of its crystals, as lard is from beef-fat by their size and shape. In the compost tion of cheap jams the microscope re- veals a frequent use of the dried pubs of apples, distinguished real straw berry or raspberry products from their well-seeded limitations. The adultera- tor must be subtle indeed if he would bury his fraud deeper than the micro scope can penetrate or chemical pro- cess divine.
 Paper reveals under the microscope whether 1t Is made of linen threads or wood pulp. Cloths and silks are esti- mated at their proper value, not only by the quality of their threads, better dis covered when magnified. but also by the number of threads contained in a square inch, a small instrument being used to enable the eye to control one square inch at a time of the surface of Its investigation. Cotton thread Is de- tected by the same means If present in so-called woolen fabrics, and silk is distinguished from nrercerlzed cotton and from close imitation made from nitro- cellulose, or gun cotton.
 In animal study the microscope has become valuable assistant. It is used to a large extent in the laboratory of pathology for the inmates of the Zoo logical Gardens of Philadelphia The plant, which was erected and equipped at cost of some s11,000, consists, be- sides the laboratory proper, of an in- firmary for sick animals, a quarantine room where contagious diseases are iso- lated, and a post morterr chamber.
 Microscopical examinations of the food of animals are made by the Uni ted States illogical Survey, quaint speciality of that august bureau be- ing the examination of birds stom- achs to discover which species eat what berries and insects, as we'll as to ascertain the several amounts con sumed by each, and thereby to deter mine the economic status of different
  The food of fishes is also the object of microscopical solicitude. and the water in which they are encouraged to breed Is subjected to examination from time to time in order to determine where there Is enough food in the way of algae and diatoms upon which the small fry may exist until they are sufficiently aged to partake of bugs
 One of the most curious uses of the microscope is in the determina- tion of stress on steel rails, caused by trains of certain weight and ve- lccity, method that is in use on the New York Central Railroad. An in- strument of complicated and extremely delicate mechanism, called the microm- eter, Is attached to the rail in such a way that the passing trains causes a line to be drawn on the drum of the micrometer, which appears more or less deeply convoluted according to the stress on the rail. The condition of rail can be accurately gauged in this manner, and new rails substituted for those that are likely to break. The business of keeping the rails of the New York Central in good shape occu- pies the entire waking hours of a mi croscopical expert, who travels con- stantly from one end of the road to the other in a private car fitted up with special apparatus
 The only photo photographic outfit in New York city is the contrivance of Dr. James H. Stebbins, Jr., secre- tary, curator and librarian of the New York Microscopical Society. The out fit Is a highly ingenious arrangement of a camera in connection with a mil croscope of great intensity, the com blnation being capable of producing a picture magnifed four thousand dia- meters An aDparatus for producin q the opposite effect was in use during the Franco-Prussian war by means of which important dispatches were re- duced, to the smallest compass, and so committed to the carrier pigeon ser vice.