274 



HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- GO S S I P. 



successful, is mentioned by Boyle. Some years 

 after, its use was strongly recommended for various 

 convulsive disorders by Sir John Colbach, wbo has 

 related several instances of its good effects. He 

 administered it iu substance in doses of half a dram, 

 or a dram of the wood or leaves, or in the form of 

 Illusion. This author was followed by others, who 

 have not only given testimony of the efficacy of the 

 mistletoe in different convulsive affections, but also 

 in those cases denominated nervous, in which it was 

 supposed to act as a tonic. But all that has been 

 written in favour of this remedy has not prevented 

 it from falling into general neglect, and the British 

 College of Physicians have perhaps not without 

 reasou expunged it from their catalogues of the 

 Materia Medica." It is a sufficient commentary 

 on the above to remark that it is not to be found 

 in any British Pharmacopoeia or work on Materia 

 Medica of the nineteenth century. A few more 

 stray uses only remain to be mentioned. In Tus- 

 ser's " Eive Hundred Points of Good Husbandry " 

 occurs the following couplet, the meaning of which 

 I do not know : — 



" If snow do continue, sheep hardly that fare, 

 Crave mistle and ivie for them for to spare." 



Among the Druids it was a cure for barrenness. 

 They called it Allheal, and prepared from it a be- 

 verage that cured all diseases and resisted all 

 poisons. " Wore about the neck by children to 

 prevent convulsions and ease their teeth ; many 

 have thought children to be the better for it, and 

 they certainly were never the worse." — Quincey, 

 1729. The berries are said to be very purgative. 

 It is "used to protect our homes from evil spirits." 

 In Herefordshire Dr. Bull says it is a common 

 practice to give it to cows after calving, and 

 to sheep after lambing. That from the haw- 

 thorn or maple is considered to be the best for 

 cows, and Sir Thomas Browne mentions this as a 

 common country practice in his time. 



In some parts of France it is believed that the 

 mistletoe applied to the stomach is an effectual 

 remedy for all kinds of poisons ; and in England it 

 is still regarded in some parts as a protection 

 against witchcraft. Another French superstition is 

 that if a branch of the mistletoe be hung up in a 

 tree with the wing of a swallow the birds will fly 

 to it from the distance of two leagues. 



The plant itself is curious in mauy respects. The 

 following are a few : — The seed frequently con- 

 tains two or even three embryos. It has a rhizo- 

 matous root, which, without actually uniting with 

 the stock on which it grows, has a very close con- 

 nection with it. It was formerly supposed to be a 

 mere excrescence from the tree, caused by a super- 

 fluity of sap. In the Gardener's Chronicle the 

 variability of the plant is mentioned— a form with 

 branches radiating, leaves recurved and shortened 



(male) ; specimens with branches short, compact 

 and bushy ; others with long, lithe, and flexile 

 branches, the colour varying also from deep green 

 to bright yellow, are recorded : " One of the most 

 remarkable varieties we have met with was one in 

 which the male and female flowers occurred on the 

 same bush. The stamen bearing flowers were borne 

 on long, slender, whiplike branches, with broad, 

 yellowish leaves. The female flowers were on 

 short, stiff branches, with small, narrow, deep- 

 green leaves." 



P.S. — I find in the Gentleman's Magazine, Feb. 

 1791, that the mistletoe in Welsh is called Guid- 

 hel. Has it any other name in that language ? 



W. G. P. 



MICROSCOPY. 



A New Method of Mounting Microscopical 

 Objects.— Professor H. L. Smith, of New York, 

 in a paper communicated to the Quekett Club, 

 recommends the following plan where cells of a 

 moderate depth are required. These cells are made 

 out of sheets of wax, such as are sold for the pur- 

 pose of making artificial flowers, and can be ob- 

 tained of various colours. The black wax is perhaps 

 the best for mounting foraminifera and other 

 opaque objects. The following are the author's 

 directions for preparing the cell and background. 

 A disk of wax rather larger than a brass curtain- 

 ring is attached to a slip by means of warmth. The 

 ring is pressed into this and centred by the turn- 

 table, and then again pressed fully home, showing 

 the brass when looked at from the under side, and 

 the whole finished with the usual "Brunswick 

 black " outside and the ring inside. To attach the 

 foraminifera or other objects, a minute drop of 

 turpentine is applied to the wax, and in a minute or 

 so, before it is quite dry, the object is placed on the 

 softened wax. When thoroughly dry it will be 

 found so strongly attached that a violent blow or 

 fall will not dislodge it. The cover should be of 

 just such a size as^to rest not on the top of the ring, 

 but to slip just withiu, so that its surface may be 

 flush with the top of the ring, and kept in its place 

 by a ring of black varnish. For mounting trans- 

 parent objects the centre of the wax disk must be 

 punched out, leaving a ring of wax. This is 

 attached to the slide, as before described, and the 

 cover, with the object upon it, is placed upon the 

 ring, and fastened thereto by passing a heated wire 

 round it. For mounting foraminifera the wax- 

 bottom cell cannot be surpassed; indeed, no one 

 who has used it will return to paper or any other 

 substitute. For further particulars as to the 

 method of making these cells, we refer our readers 

 to the September part of the " Journal of the 

 Quekett Microscopical Club." 



