276 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



In Servia when a person is suffering from consump- 

 tion and the efficacy of ordinary simples has failed, 

 the babas, or doctor, takes three apples which grew 

 upon the same branch to represent the Trinity ; a knife 

 is driven into one of these and left there twenty-four 

 hours, and then the apple is given to the patient to eat, 

 after which, in desperate cases, the patient is stretched 

 on his stomach on the ground, and the babas strews 

 salt around him, and then strides several times over 

 him from right to left, making mysterious signs and 

 muttering formulas that are reputed to be sovereign 

 remedies. 



The saying "To have everything in apple pie 

 order " is supposed to have its origin from the follow- 

 ing circumstance. It was the custom many years ago 

 to take off the top crust of an apple pie and mash up 

 the fruit with sugar and cream, then cut the crust 

 into triangular pieces like soppits and stick them 

 end downwards into the fruit in various patterns, as 

 circles, crowns, stars, &c. (see "Notes and Queries," 

 3rd s. vol. vii. p. 265). 



In Scotland the apple-tree is the badge of the Clan 

 of Lamont. 



MICROSCOPY. 



Cleaning Old Slides. — I have seen several ways 

 of cleaning turpentine or soft Canada balsam off 

 slides recommended, but have never seen methylated 

 spirit named. I have used it for some time, and like 

 it. It is clean and pleasant ; cleans fingers, knives, 

 needles, &c, and answers well to clean slides after 

 scraping off superfluous balsam. Thin circles, after 

 soaking in water, can be put on glass, scraped, and 

 finished up with spirit, being dipped in it if necessary. 

 I recommend at least a trial of it ; a very little is 

 enough, in many cases a drop or two. — IV. Locock, 

 Clifton. 



Microscopical Society of Liverpool. — The 

 eighth ordinary meeting of the eleventh session of this 

 society was held at the Royal Institution on Friday 

 evening, November 7 ; the president, the Rev. W. H. 

 Dallinger, R.M.S., in the chair. The hon. sec, Mr. 

 I. C. Thompson, announced the following donations, 

 viz. Beale's "How to work with the Microscope," 

 from the president ; Pasteur's " Studies in Fermenta- 

 tion," from Mr. Edmunds, The Limes, Birkdale, and 

 three slides of mineral crystals from W. H. Grattan, 

 honorary member. Mr. Charles Botterill exhibited 

 and explained a new form of life-slide devised by 

 him, adapted for the examination of a wide range of 

 objects. The advantages claimed for this slide are, 

 the facility with which it can be used and cleaned— 

 its reversibility, allowing either side of the object to 

 be examined through thin glass— the provision for 

 renewing the supply of water without disturbing any 

 part of the apparatus, thus enabling objects to be kept 

 under examination for an indefinite period, the same 



arrangement also allowing of the introduction of 

 colouring matters, as carmine, indigo, &c. ; and lastly, 

 its moderate cost and durability. The president, the 

 Rev. W. H. Dallinger, made some valuable remarks, 

 entitled "Notes on Bathybius as an entity at the 

 base of the Organic Series," holding that Bathybius, 

 as admitted by Huxley himself, has a very doubtful 

 existence, and that it is not wise to bolster up an 

 hypothesis quite capable of standing without 

 Bathybius as an argument in its favour, seeing that 

 the Foraminifera furnish an example of the simplest 

 form of granuleless protoplasm, and therefore stand 

 much lower in the scale of animal life than even the 

 Amoebae. The Rev. H. H. Higgins^ made some 

 interesting observations on the "Plasmodium of the 

 Myxomycetes," illustrated by diagrams. He de- 

 scribed some researches which he and the Rev. William 

 Banister had made upon this fungoid condition, and 

 from which he had, after considerable patient watching 

 succeeded in detaching a small speck which ex- 

 hibited under the microscope the true amoeboid form 

 showing curiously-shaped moving pseudapodia. 

 The Rev. William Banister followed with further 

 observations on the subject. The meeting concluded 

 with the usual conversazione. 



Rules, &c, of Microscopical Societies. — 

 As a few microscopists in Manchester contemplate 

 forming themselves into a Microscopical Society, 

 perhaps some of your readers would be kind enough 

 to send us a copy of rules of similar societies for our 

 guidance. All information on the subject will be grate- 

 fully acknowledged. — Richard A. Bastozv, 6 Dover 

 Street, Higher Crumpsall, near Manchester. 



The Inhabitants of a Drop of Water. — It 

 may interest some of your readers to learn that in a 

 single drop of water obtained from pits in the south- 

 west corner of Hale-moss, Bowden, Cheshire we 

 obtained the following, Vorticella, Brachionus, Rotifer 

 vulgaris, Paramecium, Cyclops, Snlpina, Volvox,. 

 Stentors, Epistylia, Trachelhim ovum, Vibrio, Spy- 

 rogyra, Closterium, Navicula, Diatoms various, and 

 a host of small animacula scarcely visible with the 

 one inch objective which we were using ; also some 

 larvre and other creatures which we could not name. 

 — R. A. B. 



How to avoid Air Bubbles in preparing 

 Diatoms in situ. — Thinking the following mode 

 of preparing diatoms in situ perfectly exempt of air 

 bubbles might prove interesting to some readers of 

 Science-Gossip, I asked of my friend Mr. Paul. 

 Petit, of Paris, permission to send you an extract 

 of an article which appeared under his name in the 

 " Brebissonia " last February. The process is this : — 

 Instead of burning at once the valves on the cover, 

 as proposed by Mr. de Brebisson, which does not 

 always destroy all organic matter, the gathering 

 (of marine after several washings in fresh water) is 

 placed in concentrated nitric acid for twelve hours ;. 



