Blotter

“ I still cherish a blotting-book she gave me a few years ago, the cover of which is of wood decorated in pokerwork with a pelican swallowing a soused mackerel. I keep handkerchiefs in it, as the blotting-paper with which it is supplied must, I fancy, have come out of a post-office. It blots beautifully. ”

“ The paper was soft and thin and took the ink like blotting paper. June watched with dismay as the lines spread into ugly blots, and when he tried to make the letters plainer he only made the blots bigger until they all seemed to join hands and go dancing over the envelope in fiendish glee at his discomfort. ”

“ And he held up a sheet of blotting paper, and a crumpled envelope.
"A letter has been blotted on this sheet," he said, "and by holding it up to the light and looking through it, one can, of course, read what was written. But before I read it, I will tell you from where this sheet was taken. It was taken from a blotting book in the drawing-room of Mrs. Assheton's house in Sussex Square. An expert in handwriting will soon tell the gentlemen of the jury in whose hand he without doubt considers it to be written. ”

“ Further down, there was part of a word which they made out to be “per.” Still further down, was a mass of tiny dots and marks, too faint to be given any meaning, they were not in the form of letters, but were just like the blotches that break out on the skin during measles-here, there and everywhere. But at the left side they went right to the edge of the paper, and there was a very dim line starting there and running a little way in among the blotches. ”

“ Occasionally we shall look in vain for our print, which may signify that our specimen had already scattered its spores ere we had found it, or, what is more likely, that the spores are invisible upon the paper, owing to their whiteness, in which case a piece of black paper must be substituted for the white ground, when the response will be beautifully manifest in a white tracery upon the black background. ”

“ Certainly; we opened every package and parcel; we not only opened every book, but we turned over every leaf in each volume, not contenting ourselves with a mere shake, according to the fashion of some of our police officers. We also measured the thickness of every book-cover with the most accurate measurement, and applied to each the most jealous scrutiny of the microscope. ”

“ Accordingly, measured lengths of a narrow strip of blotting-paper, of fine cotton-thread, and of a woman's hair, were carefully weighed for me by Mr. Trenham Reeks, in an excellent balance, in the laboratory in Jermyn Street. Short bits of the paper, thread, and hair were then cut off and measured by a micrometer, so that their weights could be easily calculated. ”

“ A fair white sheet with handsomely written words will be more welcome to any reader than a blotted, bedaubed page covered with erasures and dirt, even if the matter in each be of equal value and interest. Erasures, blots, interlineations always spoil the beauty of any letter. ”

“ When a blot is left the man may be taken up, or the blot maybeAzV, if, while it remains, the adversary throws a number which will enable him to place a man on that point. For example, if a blot is left on black s ace point, as in the case previously supposed, and black throws a five, or numbers that make up five, he can hit the blot from his six point ; or similarly, if he throws seven, or numbers that make up seven, he can hit the blot from the three men posted in his outer table. The man hit is placed on the bar, and has to enter black s inner table again at white s next throw. ”

“ There are blottings made of wood pulp, but these are far below the rag papers in efficiency. Soda wood pulp makes a very fair blotting paper, but sulphite wood is not so absorbent as soda pulp paper. Wood pulp blottings are usually made in thin substances for interleaving diaries and similar books, where repeated use will not be required. Enamelled blotting papers are made by pasting enamelled (coated) papers to the ordinary blotting paper and rolling down. These blottings can be obtained in a variety of colours, both the blotting and surface paper being varied in colour. ”

“ But there is a little matter which may have escaped the police, may even have escaped you. To that I would now call your attention since through it I have been enabled, after a little necessary groping, to reach the open. You remember the one large blotch on the upper floor where the man dropped the wallet? That blotch, more or less commingled with a fainter one, possessed great significance for me from the first moment I saw it. How came his foot to bleed so much more profusely at that one spot than at any other? ”

“ Why, every novel and almost every play has this question of the blotting-book in it. It is such a simple device, and yet in real life how often it does happen! Here am I confronted with the worst crisis in my whole life, simply because I forgot the blotting-book."
Clenching her teeth she quietly left the room, descended the wide Georgian stairs into the hall, and opened the door of the drawing-room. ”

“ Plant tubes of gelatine or agar, liquefied by heat, from each of the higher dilutions, say from 0.0000001 loop to 0.01 loop; pour plates and incubate. When growth is visible enumerate the number of organisms present in each, average up and calculate the number of bacteria present in one loopful of the inoculum. ”

“ Our best ultramicroscopes could make a germ look forty thousand times larger. A mussel-shell is a thousand fingers like Edwin's. Take forty mussel-shells, and by as many times larger was the germ when we looked at it through a microscope. And after that, we had other ways, by using what we called moving pictures, of making the forty-thousand-times germ many, many thousand times larger still. And thus we saw all these things which our eyes of themselves could not see. Take a grain of sand. ”

“ Culture media may be either liquid or solid, or for certain purposes may be liquid at higher temperatures and solid at lower, as indicated later. Liquid media are of value for obtaining bacteria for the study of morphology and cell groupings and for ascertaining many of the physiological activities of the organisms. Solid media are useful for studying some few of the physiological activities and especially for determining characteristic appearances of the isolated growths of bacteria. ”

“ It is certain that it is often at fault, and that as much attention should be paid to the paper as to the tub. A most efficient way of treating paper, either for tub liners or print wrappers is to place same in boiling water for a few minutes. ”

“ In medico-legal researches there is seldom any considerable quantity of the material to work upon. Hence the greatest care must be taken from the commencement not to waste the substance in useless tests, but to study well at the outset what—by the method of extraction used, the microscopic appearance, the reaction to litmus paper, and the solubility in different menstrua—it is likely to be. ”

“ Bubble live steam (at 100° C.) through the medium mass, for twenty-five minutes, by which time complete solution of the agar is effected.
6. Now weigh the flask and its contents; then (1035 [5] grammes + weight of flask) minus (weight of flask and its contents) equals the weight of water required to make up the bulk of the medium to 1 litre. Add the requisite amount (see preparation of gelatine, page 166, step 6) .
7. Titrate, and estimate the reaction of the medium mass; control the result. ”

“ Size.—In the case of non-motile or sluggishly motile organisms, endeavour to measure several individuals in each hanging drop by means of the eyepiece micrometer or the eikonometer (vide page 63) , and average the results.
If the organism is one which forms spores, observe—
(a) Spore Formation.—Prepare hanging-drop cultivations (vide page 78) from vegetative forms of the organism, adding a trace of magenta solution (0.5 per cent.) ”

“ Waste, or Waste leaves. Part of the end papers and the blank leaves between the colored end papers and the book proper; should be part of the same lot of paper with which the book is printed. One of the waste leaves is often pasted to the loose half of the lining paper or end sheet, thus forming a doubled fly-leaf.
Waste papers. See End papers.
Waterproof sheets. Sheets of celluloid or waterproof cardboard sometimes laid in or between books when pressing. ”

“ FLOATING NEEDLES Grease needles and let them float in a bowl of water, upon which tissue paper is laid. Each child has his, or her, own needle. It is amusing to watch the action of the needle when the paper sinks—as it does when it becomes saturated—the needles rush about. ”

“ The main use of the microscope in bacteriology is in the study of stained preparations of the organisms. Staining makes bacteria opaque and hence more easily seen than the transparent unstained forms. Some methods of staining also show morphological structures which are either imperfectly recognized in the unstained cell, spores, or are not visible at all—capsules, metachromatic granules, flagella. ”

“ Bacteria are expressed in numbers per cc, yeast and spores in numbers per 1-60 c mm. Since the counting can be done only in the fluid portion, an error occurs proportional to the number of bacteria in or attached to the tissue which cannot be counted.
The error of assuming that numbers of organisms alone are a sufficient index of the wholesomeness of a food product is well illustrated by work on water analysis. ”

“ Most microbiology laboratories need only a little of the suspected mold on a clear strip of sticky tape to determine, using a microscope, whether it is actually mold or something that looks like mold. If you lack extensive experience or are in doubt about sampling, consult an experienced professional. ”

“ Continuously damp walls, or wall-paper, will produce them in specific variety, not because their invisible spores are flying about in the atmosphere to find appropriate lodgment, but because the necessary conditions obtain for their manifestation, or for the development of their vital units--those everywhere diffused, and ready to burgeon forth from the proper matrix, or from certain nutrient conditions to be met with in all vegetable substances, after the process of decay has commenced. ”

“ Butter may mold where the tubs have been thoroughly treated, because of the mold spores on the paper used for the lining. One of the black molds is able to thrive on parchment paper whenever the air is damp. ”

“ Plants furnish food, clothing, shelter, and medicine. Animals use food, shelter. Man's use of plants as above. Man's use of animals as above. Plant and animal industries. Use of balanced aquarium as illustrative material.
Third week. Destruction of Food and Other Things by Mold. Home experiment. Conditions favorable to growth of mold. Food, moisture, temperature. Destruction of commodities by mold: food, leather, clothing.
Fourth week, fifth week. Destruction of Foods by Bacteria. Experiment. To show where bacteria are found. Soil, dust, water, milk, hands, mouth. ”

“ A regulation has adopted a test for the discovery of artificial coloring matter which in brief consists in rubbing tea leaves reduced to dust upon semi-glazed paper with a spatula and examining the smear with a lens. ”

“ It is arranged in a tabular form, in which are given the specific characteristics of the various well established bacteria, so that the worker may, at a glance, inform himself as to the identity of a given organism. ”

“ From his or her body are continually given off in all directions, by the skin, the breath, the perspiration and the other secretions, millions of spores so minute that 20,000 placed end to end would not measure 1 inch in length, and a group of them the size of a grain of sand might contain 50,000,000. ”

“ The whiteness of Linnen, Paper, Silk, &c. proceeds much from the same reason, as the Microscope will easily discover; for the Paper is made up of an abundance of pellucid bodies, which afford a very plentifull reflection from within, that is, from the concave surface of the air contiguous to its component particles ”

“ In making the counts, the analyst should avoid counting an organism twice when it rests on a boundary line between two adjacent squares.
Bacteria.—Tentative
Estimate the number of rod-shaped bacteria from the mounted sample used in 29 [10] (yeasts and spores) , but before examination allow the sample to stand not less than 15 minutes after mounting. Employ a magnification of about 500, which may be obtained by the use of an 8 mm. Zeiss apochromatic objective with X18 Zeiss compensating ocular with draw-tube not extended, or an 8 mm. ”

“ I collected on the spot some samples of the water which looked most like blood, and also of water which, being less briny than this, was also of a fainter red color. Under the microscope the water collected in the various compartments exhibited myriads of minute creatures, with oval or oblong bodies, often compressed in the middle, but sometimes cylindrical. Very young individuals were colorless, those a little older were greenish, and the adult were of a deep red. ”

“ Whenever a cell accumulates an excess of products the normal result is that it excretes them from its own substance into the surrounding lymph, whence they reach the blood stream to be either carried to the true excretory organs, utilized by other cells or remain for a longer or shorter time in the blood. ”