Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-04
Use OF MICROSCOPE
Amateur Az Well A. Professional
Naturzlists Garry Strong GLASS
in Their Equipment.

uralist in the country Is providing himself
with microscopic apparatus for the sum-
mer's outing amonA beetles burrs and bac-
terra. the manufacturers of microscopes are
complaining that they cannot keep pace
with the demand.
The latest development of the nagnifying
glass; one not vet carried to completion
promises the revelation Of unseen things
buried seventy-five times deeper from our
eyes than the strata of minuteness TO which
the ordinary microscope penetrates. This
uitra-microscope, as II is called, presents as
yet only very unsatisfactory image. Par
ticies that were invisible before fash up
under the impingement of the strong ray of
light that is. used, butstheir nature is quite
fndfstinguishable They appear only as
blurs Yet the knowledge that further
vision exists Is squirting the inventor to
pursue and establish it.
Meantime, 1t Is in the field of medicine
that the microscope as we now have it is
DONG the greatest and most sensational
things. Thus its latest find, the germ of
hydrophobia, has created all at once a
change in the method of treatment of that
disease The patient who has been bitten
by presumably mad dog is henceforth
freed from the long period of suspense that
waited on the results of the former method
of inoeulating rabbit with the virus of the
dog. Now that the germ is known, its pres
microscopic examination of the brain sub
stance of the alleged mad dog, and the suf-
ferer either Immediately relieved of his
fears or warned that he must undergo the
Pasteur treatment.
Physicians Tool
The microscope is, in fact the up-to-date
physicians most useful tool. Withoutit the
germ theory of the origin of diseases could
not have been discovered; without it the
everyday practice of medicine would be
hopeessly hampered. IN such laboratory
as that of the POSTGRADUATE Medical School
and Hospital of this city not only is 1t used
for diagnoses of cases in the wards and for
the archaeological training of hundreds of
physician students from all parts of the
United States and foreign lands. but it ex-
amines specimens sent to it from all over
the world and from the private practice of
the two hundred or more New York ply
sicians and surgeons who comprise the in
stitution's teaching faculty. Here the mi
croScopes are In full force on the glass ta-
BILE tops, one for each worker and clusters
of test tubes stand about in their supports,
together wit bottles of colored liquids and
all manner of stuffs named in Greek and
Latin. Here. in cases, are .myriads of micro
scopic slides small oblong bits of glass,
Smeared with bacterial specimens of the
thousand known varieties-and in a large
copper incubator are the deadly cultures"
in which the bacteriologist takes as great
PRIDE as the Suburbanite In his successful
backyard garden.
culture. as even the layman is begin
ming to understand. is germ growth in
duced outside of the human body by plac-
ing it in medium favorable to its devel-
opment. Beef serum, combined with gela-
tine, is the commonest medium, though for
specific purposes potato is often used or
agaragar. known also as Japanese moss.
The culture is used to prove beyond doubt
the nature of a germ disease A little path
illogical material from the parts affected is
taken from the body of the patient by
means of platinum wire loop a swab
of cotton, and smeared over the surface of
the serum contained in a test tube. In
greater or less length of time the germ
either develops and is Identified by the NIL
croscope, or it does not develop.
Test for Typhoid
BY the method known as the Vidal reac-
ton, employed in typhoid. the culture fur
nishes further method of Identification. A
particle of matter supposed to bear the
germ of typhoid is taken from the sus-
pected patient and put with a small guam
tity of pure typhoid culture Very quickly
any doubt is removed by the microscope,
which, in event of true case of typhoid,
will reveal the bacilli dumped together in a
single colony. When there is no infection In
the sample of material the microscope
shows the typhoid germs like straight bits
OF broken SICK scattered ana
T'ne incubator contains other prosperous
families of microbes besides the bacilli of
typhoid 1t is warmed to blood heat by
lamp that. like the lamp of the sanctuary
never goes out, and in its grateful atmos-
phere live and thrive and multiply in their
small glass containing tubes the deadliest
enemies of humankind. If ever death We're
to be seen in tangible form. it is here, bot
tied. A cloudy smear over the gelatine in
the test tube may mean a myriad of diph-
thereto baciili countless spiFilla of choi-
era. If the microscopes eye be put to a
specimen of diphtheria culture it will re-
veal a network of detached rods, sometimes
tied up in square bowknots. The cholera
germ appears like a larger rod crinkled. The
bacillus tuberculosis is like a straight hair
In detached. scattered bits; the lockjaw
germ resembles a pin; the diplocci of pneu-
monia are like berries in pairs, whence
their name-an dso it goes, each known
microbe having distinction and name.
Equally practical in their everyday APP
plication are the microscopical investiga-
tons of the general laboratories and that
of the city board OF health. Water examina-
lions are made, and drugs and foods and
manufactures tested for deieterious admix-
lures. Adulterated spices and teas are read
lily 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 composition of cheap jams the micro
scope reveals a frequent use of dried pulp
of apples, and distinguishes real strawberry
or raspberry products from their well seed
ed limitations. The adulterator must be
subtle indeed IL he would bury his fraud
han r,aia oar