662 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



gave the better results. Under a dissecting Microscope pieces were cut 

 off the ends of the filaments, and by means of a pipette were transferred 

 to a small dialyser. When a sufficient number had been collected the 

 alcohols were slowly upgraded and afterwards chloroform was added. 

 When pure chloroform was reached, paraffin dissolved in chloroform was 

 added, the oven temperature being 52° C. On arriving at pure paraffin 

 the contents of the dialyser were poured into a paper boat placed on an 

 iron blade heated sufficiently to keep the paraffin liquid. The pieces 

 were then arranged parallel to one another by means of needles. As 

 this procedure was always tedious and often unsuccessful, it was replaced 

 by the following : — A larger dialyser was used and into it several hundreds 

 of bits from the tips were thrown. The liquids were changed as before, 

 but when they arrived in paraffin the boats were kept in the oven at 

 52° 0. until the fragments had sunk to the bottom ; the paraffin was then 

 suddenly cooled. The sections were stained with iron-alum-hsematoxylin 

 with or without Congo red. The use of gentian-violet aided the 

 differentiation. The greatest obstacle to success was the presence of 

 diatoms which covered the surface of the filaments of Stypocaulon. 

 As many as possible were removed by means of a brush. 



Cultivating the Parasite of Oriental Sore.* - - R. Row planted 

 material from the sore in sterile sodium citrate solution (2 p.c), and 

 in human blood serum. Some of the cultures were left at laboratory 

 temperature (25-28° C), and some were incubated at 35° C. Those 

 incubated at 85° C. and those planted in the sodium citrate solution did 

 not show any growth, and soon disintegrated. In the blood serum 

 cultures, kept at laboratory temperature, they increased in size, 

 multiplied greatly, and finally became Herpetdmonas-like flagellates. 

 The author describes in detail the phases in the life-cycle, and gives 

 reasons for discriminating between the parasite of oriental sore and 

 that of kala-azar. 



(2) Preparing' Objects. 



Demonstrating the Structure of Trypanosoma lewisi.t — 

 E. A. Minchin, in an important paper on the structure of Trypanosoma 

 lewisi, in relation to microscopical technique, gives a mass of informa- 

 tion relative to manipulation and procedure from personal experience. 

 lie begins by showing how Trypanosomes maybe effectively examined in 

 hanging drops. To a hollow ground slide is cemented a ground- 

 glass ring ; the upper edge of the ring is painted with vaselin, and a drop 

 or two of 4 p.c. osmic acid placed in the well. A cover-glass is then 

 spread with a drop of blood and placed, film side downwards, on the 

 ring. After a certain time the cover-glass is removed and placed, film 

 side downwards, on a slide and insured against further evaporation by 

 luting it with a mixture of beeswax and Venetian turpentine. Such 

 preparations are termed by the author " standard." In some of these 

 standard preparations a small drop of | p.c. methyl-green in 1 p.c. 



* Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., liii. (1909) pp. 747-54 (1 pi.). 

 t Tom. cit., pp. pp. 755-808 (3 pis.). 



