EDITORIAL 265 



isms as caddis grubs, are not very suitable inmates of a balanced 

 aquarium. 



The same institution also showed a number of models illustrating 

 a simple and efficient method of making permanent preparations of 

 fishes. By this process the fish is cast in wax and plaster, the 

 original fins replaced, and the model painted to life from a fresh 

 specimen. 



The fins are first removed and stuck — by their own mucus — on a 

 sheet of glass, where they soon dry in any desired position. The 

 fish is then placed in a shallow trough, and covered entirely with 

 melted paraffin wax, of the quality used for common wax candles. 

 When the wax is quite cold and hard the fish is removed, and of 

 course it leaves a perfect mould ; this is filled with plaster of Paris 

 in the ordinary way of casting, and when it is set the wax is cut or 

 broken away. 



The next step is to fix the dried fins in their proper positions on 

 the plaster cast; but as plaster does not provide a good painting 

 surface, the cast is "gilded" with aluminum leaf, which gives a 

 clear metallic surface that takes ordinary artists' oil colors in an 

 admirable way, and anyone practised in painting can soon bring 

 the model to such a point that it cannot be told from a fresh fish 

 unless by handling. When it is remembered that about one 

 hundred different species of fish have been purchased lately from 

 the shops and stalls in a single Stepney street, the elementary study 

 of food fishes suggests a promising. field for town children. — From 

 School Nature-Study, London, Eng., June, 1913. 



Nature Articles in October Magazines 



American Magazine — The Village of a Thousand Souls, Arnold L. 

 Gesell. A Study of heredity from first hand sources. The 

 genetic condition of a typical western city. 



Atlantic Monthly — A Hay-Bam Idyll. John Burroughs. An 



account of the birds that live about the bam. 

 The Garden Magazine — The Child's Garden, edited by Ellen Eddy 



Shaw, deals with bulb planting and culture. 



Harper's Magazine — ^An Old Tow Path, Richard Le Galliene. 

 Outing — Wild Pets, Edward Breck. The young of wild animals 



learn things instinctively and do not need instruction by their 



parents. 



