HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



6 7 



Highbury Microscopical Society, and was its presi- 

 dent in 1884. He had contributed many papers, 

 chiefly biological. He was much beloved on account 

 of his kindly, genial manners, and readiness to help 

 others with his knowledge, being well read in most 

 branches of natural history and having a remarkably 

 retentive memory ; and so, being always on the look 

 out for recruits, had enlisted many young men in the 

 cause of science. He was preparing a paper on 

 "Mites" for a meeting to be held next November 

 by the Highbury Microscopical Society, and had 

 already mounted many slides for that purpose. 

 He was interred at Highgate on January 16th, when 

 many friends, including most of the medical men 

 of the district, assembled to do him honour. 



The Quekett Microscopical Club.— The last 

 issue of the journal of this flourishing society con- 

 tains the following papers : President's inaugural 

 •address, by A. D. Michael, F.L.S.; "Notes on 

 Palmadactylon sztbramosum, and on a new British 

 species of Vaucheria," by Dr. M. C. Cooke ; " On 

 an unusual form of tube made by Alclicerta ringais" 

 by T. Spencer Smithson ; "Historic Microscopy," 

 by E. M. Nelson; "On a method of equalising the 

 thickness of slips when raising an oil immersion 

 condenser," by E. M. Nelson ; " Final notes on 

 the so-called desiccation of Rotifers," by Henry 

 Davis ; " Corrigenda to Professor Cleve's paper ' On 

 some fossil marine Diatoms ' " ; etc. etc. 



Cole's "Studies in Microscopical Science." 

 — The last four parts of this ever-welcome work, 

 as usual cover various parts of biological ground. 

 All are illustrated by artistically coloured plates. 

 Thus, botanical histology deals with the structure of 

 the sexual organs of reproduction in the angio- 

 sperms ; animal histology with the disposition of 

 the organs in the invertebrata ; pathological histology 

 with Collier's disease (anthracosis) ; whilst the part 

 devoted to popular microscopical studies gives an 

 account of Trichina spiralis. The slides accom- 

 panying the above four parts present us with (1) a 

 transverse section of the mature ovary of Lilium, 

 (2) transverse section of young lamprey, (3) a slide 

 showing anthracosis of coal-miner's lung, and (4) 

 a diatom {Ccstodiscus supcrbus). 



New Slides. — We have been favoured with an 

 admirably mounted set of slides, of Trichina spiralis, 

 by Mr. Ernest Hinton. No. 1 shows male and 

 female ; No. 2, the worm imbedded in the muscle ; 

 No. 3, ditto (larva) dissected from muscle, and freed 

 from surrounding material ; No. 4, Trichina in 

 capsules ; and No. 5, ditto calcined in the muscle. 

 All of them are of the highest use both to teacher 

 and student. From Mr. B. Piffard we have received 

 several slides of botanical specimens, some of them 

 stained by his new process of iodine vapour. Among 

 them are vertical sections of leaf of carnation, 



showing stomata ; the dodder (Cuscuta) with its 

 tissues imbedded in the host-plant ; Hypha; of 

 fungi, etc. Mr. C. Collins, jun., has forwarded us 

 a well-mounted and valuable slide of the much- 

 debated "Dawn animalcule" {Eozoon Canadcnse) 

 from the Laurentian rocks. If there is no royal road 

 to knowledge, it is very certain that such available 

 aids as the above make the path both easier and 

 pleasanter for the student. 



The Royal Microscopical Society. — At a 

 meeting of the above society, Dr. Dallinger, who 

 has been re-elected president, delivered the annual 

 address. Dr. Dallinger dealt in his opening remarks 

 with the growth of specialisation in science. This, 

 he thought, was at once a triumph and a peril. The 

 autonomy of the expert and the specialist was a 

 danger that all who care for the unity and wholeness 

 of human knowledge must be alive to. Dr. Dallinger 

 indicated the remedy as lying in the improvement ot 

 scientific education so as to secure breadth of culture, 

 and the careful linking of each small and special area 

 of research to, and viewing it in the light of, the 

 inconceivably vaster realm in which it was an essential 

 and inalienable factor. The special subject of the 

 address was an example of this connection ; it dealt 

 with a problem which lies at the base of all biology — 

 the importance of the cell-nucleus. The address was 

 a masterly one. After giving similar details about 

 several organisms, Dr. Dallinger summed up thus : 

 " One thing appears clear — the nucleus is the centre 

 of all the higher activities in these organisms. The 

 germ itself appears to be but an undeveloped nucleus ; 

 and when that nucleus has attained its full dimen- 

 sions, there is a pause in growth, in order that its 

 internal development may be accomplished. It 

 becomes practically indisputable that the body- 

 sarcode is, so to speak, a secretion, a vital product 

 of the nucleus. From it the flagella originally arise ; 

 by it the act of fission is initiated and in all probability 

 carried to the end ; the same is the case with fertili- 

 sation and the production of germs. We are thus 

 brought into close relation with the behaviour of the 

 nucleus in the simplest condition. No doubt far 

 profounder and subtler changes are concurrently 

 proceeding. We of course are no nearer to the 

 solution of what life is. But to come any distance 

 nearer to a knowledge of how the most living part of 

 the minutest organisms acts in detail has for me and 

 for most biologists an increasing fascination." The 

 address was illustrated by original pictures of great 

 beauty thrown upon a screen by a powerful oxy- 

 hydrogen microscope, and was greeted with loud 

 applause at its conclusion. 



The "Journal of the Royal Microscopical 

 Society" for February contains a paper by Mr. A. 

 W. Bennett,- F.L.S. , "On the Freshwater Algre of 

 the Lake District ; " "The Preparation of Sections 

 of Pumice-stone and other Vesicular Rocks," by Dr. 



