HAKDWLCKE'S SC IE N CE-G OSS* I P. 



17 



Wenham's reflex illuminator, upon a scale of 

 Podura (Lcpidocyrtus curvicollis). The scale ap- 

 peared on a black Held, while its markings were 

 brilliantly illuminated. The effect was ennanced 

 by the small angle of the objective, a French gth 

 of about CO aperture. Away from the crowd, as 

 befitted aristocracy, was a large microscope by 

 E.. & J. Peek, in solid silver, fitted with every con- 

 ceivable piece of apparatus, all in silver. This 

 luxurious work of art, intended for an American 

 niicroscopist, and costing- £500, was of course the 

 lion of the hour, and is perhaps the most costly 

 microscope ever made. After mention of this, there 

 is of course no further space to allude in detail to 

 the numerous humble brass microscopes in the 

 room. Fortunately it is the observer who utilizes 

 it, rather than the instrument itself, who can claim 

 the credit of a beautiful display, and to whom our 

 advance in knowledge is due. So here the atten- 

 tion was riveted by many objects of unusual inter- 

 est, upon each of which a long theme might be 

 discoursed. Conspicuous among these was the 

 exhibition of insect dissections by Mr. Loy. They 

 were perfect marvels. Several showed the complete 

 muscular system in certain large lepidopterous 

 larva?. Various slides illustrated salivary glands 

 and other wonders of insect anatomy. All the 

 specimens were stained in various colours, mounted 

 in fluid, in large cells, on slides 4 in. by 2 in., 

 or thereabouts, which were finished off in coloured 

 cements with tbe taste and skill which Mr. Loy's 

 friends admire but cannot imitate. This sentiment 

 prompted several of them to assist in the display 

 of the preparations, and so a whole table was de- 

 voted to the subject with great success. Salivary 

 glands of insects having been brought prominently 

 forward among London microscopists by recent 

 discussions at the Quekett Club, there were several 

 specimens of these on view, indicating the active 

 operation of an influence to investigate these organs 

 among our working members. Several beautiful 

 preparations by Mr. Tatem, in the category of 

 insect dissections, were seen. Mr. Guimarens had 

 a very interesting series of preparations by Pour- 

 gogue, of Paris, illustrating the vine parasite in all 

 its stages (Phylloxera vastator). Near him Mr. 

 Fitch was exhibiting a mounted slide containing a 

 harvest spider (Phalangiuni), upon the back of 

 which, and attacking the eyes, was "a red parasitic 

 mite, probably a young Tromhidlum. Dr. Gray had 

 a very curious slide on view. It was a piece of 

 skin from the neck of a domestic fowl from Ceylon, 

 which was completely hidden from sight by a dense 

 mass of fleas. The size of the specimen, only a 

 small fragment of the original, was about Jrd of 

 an inch square, and on it might be counted nearly 

 one hundred tleas. Each of them had buried her 

 lancets (1 say Iter, because only one or two males 



were among the crowd of fleas) deep in the skin. 

 Individuals when separately detached and mounted, 

 bore a striking resemblance to the chigoe of the 

 West Indies, before it enters the skin of its host. 

 Elsewhere, at the same table, was the foot of a 

 West Indian spider, having an extraordinary supply 

 of large tenent hairs, illustrating, on a large scale, 

 what is seen in miniature in the structure of the 

 feet of several of our Britisli tree and wall spiders. 

 A remarkable series of models and specimens, at 

 the left as you entered the room, illustrated in a 

 beautiful manner the structure of the cochlea of the 

 ear in various animals. Mr. H. Lee exhibited with 

 Moginie's portable binocular, the larval form of 

 the crayfish, from the Brighton Aquarium, a 

 creature so unlike its parent that, till lately, it was 

 considered a distinct species, and was known as the 

 " glass-crab." It was a beautiful specimen. Among 

 the vegetable preparations attracting notice, was a 

 charming slide of a fungus on wood, shown by 

 Mr. Reeves, and named by him as a Stemonitis. 

 Curious deposits from solutions of silica were shown 

 by Mr. Slack ; but I must pause in my enumera- 

 tion, for in this short account, which I thought 

 might interest some microscopists out of London, 

 I have of necessity passed over many most in- 

 teresting displays. The list of objects exhibited, 

 which will appear in due course in the Monthly 

 31icroscopical Journal, must supply this information 

 to any one desirous of it. As regards the meaning 

 of these scientific evenings, I would wish to explain 

 that they are held about twice a year, and on these 

 occasions fellows and a limited number of friends 

 meet to exhibit the greatest novelties in microsco- 

 pical science, or some object from their cabinets of 

 real scientific interest. They were adopted in 

 cousequence of the temporary inability of tbe Royal 

 Microscopical Society to give one of those large 

 evening parties known as soirees; but they are found 

 to be so interesting that they are not likely to be 

 relinquished, even should the society return to their 

 former practice. The essentials for comfort and 

 success are zeal on the part of the exhibitors, 

 intelligent appreciation of what is truly scientific, 

 and the absence of the squeezing and struggling for 

 room to move about which is the invariable accom- 

 paniment of a grand soiree, rendering it all but 

 unendurable. There have been three or four of 

 these meetings held previously, at which most 

 interesting displays were made ; but this last one 

 deserves more than a passing notice, as evincing the 

 activity of the parent Microscopical Society, in spite 

 of the gradual elimination by the hand of death, one 

 by one, of the pioneers of microscopical science — 

 those whose names are "familiar as household 

 words " to the readers of microscopical literature, 

 and being a promise of better things to come. — 

 >S'. /. M'Intire. 



