276 



HARD Wl CKE 'S S CIE NCE- G SSIP. 



Liege ; and, what must be much dearer to the heart of 

 so genuine a Scotchman, the Philosophical Society of 

 Glasgow have recently honoured both themselves and 

 him, by electing him President of their Biological 

 section. 



We hear of the Government grant of ^4000 a year, 

 through the Royal Society, for aid to scientific 

 workers, and of the scramble to get a share. Mr. 

 Thomson has never joined in the scramble ; but we 

 think some of such fund would not be unwisely 

 expended in helping him to give his collected papers 

 and their illustrations to geological students in a 

 collected and cheap form. 



MICROSCOPY. 



Aylward's Pond-Life Apparatus.— Mr. H. P. 

 Aylward, of 15, Cotham Street, Strangeways, Man- 

 chester, has recently introduced a set of apparatus 

 for the capture of living organisms from ponds, 

 which is not only novel and effective, but a marvel of 

 cheapness. The capturing apparatus, as such, consists 

 of the following articles. I. A sharpened recurved 

 hook for detaching vegetable growths. 2. A coiled 

 ring into which an ordinary four-ounce bottle with a 

 wide mouth can be screwed, and the uses of which 

 areobvious. 3. A case for the bottle made of japanned 

 tin provided with a strainer of a novel type. 4. A tin 

 case with tube bottles for holding the collected organ- 

 isms. The first and second of these pieces are pro- 

 vided with a fixture of stout wire coiled into a conical 

 corkscrew arrangement which permits of their being 

 screwed on to the end of any ordinary walking-stick 

 with the utmost security. The japanned case with 

 strainer consists of a cylindrical box five inches high 

 and two inches diameter ; the upper open end of this 

 box is composed for about two inches of a fine wire 

 gauze. When a bottle full of material has been 

 collected, it is emptied into this box, the material 

 settles down, and the vast bulk of the water flows 

 away through the upper gauze portion, leaving the 

 gathering free for examination. What is wanted 

 may thus be picked out and placed in one of the 

 tube-bottles of the storage tin, and the operation 

 continued till all the tube-bottles are filled. A final 

 gathering may then be carried in the collecting bottle, 

 which, after being unscrewed from the walking-stick 

 can be placed in the straining box, and the whole 

 multum in parvo apparatus carried in one's coat- 

 pocket without attracting a crowd of admiring country 

 bumpkins on the way home. We have given Mr. 

 Aylward's apparatus the trial of over a month's 

 constant usage, and are more pleased with it than 

 with our more expensive and cumbersome parapher- 

 nalia ; we therefore strongly recommend it to the 

 notice of our readers. 



The Quekett Microscopical Club. — The 

 October number of the Journal contains the following 

 papers : — " List of the principal objects found at 

 Keston, May 19th, 1883," by Dr. M. C. Cooke ; " On 

 the Work of the Coast Survey and the Fish Com- 

 mission of the United States," by Romyn Hitchcock ; 

 and the Address of the President (Dr. M. C. Cooke), 

 on " Biological Analogies," a most interesting paper 

 full of original suggestions and side-lights on several 

 well-known objects, and their surroundings and 

 relationships. 



How to Prepare Head of Gnat. — I should be 

 glad if anyone will inform me how to prepare and 

 mount the head of a mosquito or gnat, showing labium, 

 mandibles, maxillae, tongue and labrum. I find, to 

 begin with, great difficulty in separating the different 

 parts without damaging them. — E. F. B. 



On the Classification and Labelling 

 Microscopical objects. — To the many valuable- 

 suggestions by I. C. Thompson in Science-Gossip 

 for November, locality might be added with' 

 advantage in the labelling of microscopical objects. 

 To anatomical or structural specimens locality may 

 signify little, but it is a most important consideration' 

 in the distribution of species. The omission of name 

 of genus or species may generally be found, but the 

 omission of locality in most cases can seldom or never 

 be obtained. — D. R. 



"Studies in Microscopical Science." — Nos.. 

 4, 5, and 6, of this welcome serial hare been dealing, 

 with the morphology, theory, and form of the cell, the 

 blood of frog, all of which have been illustrated by 

 beautifully coloured plates and excellently mounted 

 slides. 



A New Morphological Institution. — We 

 understand that a Morphological Laboratory is about 

 to be instituted in London by Mr. John Ernest Ady, 

 whom most of our readers will remember as the 

 author of Vol. i. of the "Studies in Microscopicat 

 Science," nominally edited by Mr. Arthur C. Cole, 

 the well-known object mounter, who prepared the 

 slides in illustration qf that work. At present the 

 laboratory is limited to the production of microscopical 

 preparations, and especially of rock and mineral 

 sections, in which latter Mr. Ady has the co-operation 

 of perhaps the most efficient preparer in Great Britain* 

 Mr. H. Hensoldt. Messrs. Ady and Hensoldt 

 propose to issue a series of rock sections, with ex- 

 planatory etched diagrams and letterpress descriptions,, 

 early next January. No fewer than twenty-four 

 exquisitely prepared specimens, accompanied with 

 copious notes and sketches, and issued fortnightly, 

 will be furnished to subscribers for a sum of a guinea 

 and a half. As the supply of the work can be but 

 limited to about one hundred copies, we strongly 

 recommend our readers to make an early application. 

 This limitation we hear is compulsory, because the 



