NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 433 



olijects of aii}'^ such society for the systematic observation of na- 

 tural phenomena as ours, and the expression of which constitutes 

 the true life of every similar association. 



The interesting report of Dr. Albert Fricke upon the " Horse 

 Epidemic of October and November, 18*12," read before our De- 

 cember meeting of last year, and published in the 3Iedicol 2V??ie.s, 

 was followed in January hj^ the useful essa}' of Dr. J. Gibbons 

 Hunt, " On the Preparation and Preservation of Vegetable 

 Tissues," comprising a complete exposition of the method for 

 mounting objects in Damar, which has of late proved so valuable 

 to microscopists. In connection with this communication, Dr. 

 Hunt showed specimens of the common Truffle, discovered grow- 

 ing wild near Philadelphia by himself, for the first time, as far as 

 we are aware, in America. 



The February meeting was occupied with the reading and dis- 

 cussion of Dr. James T^'son's able paper, "On the Microscopic 

 Stud}' of Blood and Epithelium," embodying some of the results 

 of the author's observations in Europe, in the laboratories of 

 Strieker and Klein, and since developed, in accordance witli 

 nature's great law of the survival of the fittest, into an excellent 

 introduction to practical histology. 



Mr. Daid. S. Holraan submitted to us in March his ingenious 

 moist slide for the examination of blood, pus, etc., whose practical 

 application was admirably sliown the following month, at the very 

 satifactorj" exhibition of microscopes, microscopical apparatus, 

 and specimens, given by the Section in the Hall of the Academ}^, 

 and attended by a large number of members and citizen^, includ- 

 ing many ladies, who appeared mueli interested in the wonders of 

 the microscopic world. 



In May, Dr. J. G Hunt contributed a very practical communi- 

 cation, " On the Use of Hfeinatox3don in the Preparation of Stain- 

 ings of both Vegetable and Animal Tissues," and in June exhi- 

 bited a common Stellate Hair, sent to him as an extraordinary 

 ingredient of vomited matter, which gave rise to an interesting 

 and important debate upon Dr. Charlton Bastiau's researches in 

 reg;ard to the Beginnino-s of Life. 



The curious putridity of the water in the reservoir at the Cam- 

 den Water Works, which presented an insoluble problem to vari- 

 ous scientists, was demonstrated dui'ing the summer, by Dr. J. G. 

 Hunt, to be due to the growth of a Nostoc, the Trichormus 



