5:34 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



drying of the medium for a considerable time ; (5) there is little if any 

 action on the specific colour of the growths on which I have tried it. 

 Only one of my preparations is at all cracked, and not so as to affect tlie 

 specimen. The others seem to have dried a little, but have quite a 

 glassy surface. 



Abel, R. — Tasohenbuch fur dem bakteriologischen Praktikanten, enthaltend die 

 wichtigsten technischen Detailvorschriften zur bakteriologischen Laborotoriums- 

 arbeit. Wiirzburg: A. Stuber, 8th ed. (1904) vi. and 144 pp. 



Bess on, A. — Technique microbiologique et serotherapique. 



Paris : Bailliere et Ills, 3rd. ed. (1904) 340 figs. 



Fobsteb, W. H. C. — Simple Technique for the Enumeration of Organisms in any 

 fluid. 



[A modification of the method of A. E. Wright for the estimation of the 

 number of living organisms in a given culture, and also used for researches 

 on blood serum, Lancet (1901) i. p. 1532.] 



Lancet (1905) i. pp. 1641-2. 



Ledermann, R. — Die Mikroskopische Technik mit besonderer Beriicksichtsgung 

 der Farbertechnik. Med. Handbibliotheh,, Bd. vi., Wien and Leipzig, 



A. Holder, 1903. 



Prenant, A., Bouin, P., & Maillard, L. — Traite d'histologie. I. Cytologic 

 generale et speciale. Paris : C. Reinwald, Schleicher, freres et Cie. 



(1904) xxxiii. and 977 pp., 791 figs. 



Rothiq, P. — Handbuchder embryologischen Technik. 



Wiesbaden : J. F. Bergmann, 1904. 



Stuhr, P. — Traite technique d'histologie. 



Paris : translated by H. Toupet and Critzmann, 

 3rd French ed., 514 pp., 399 figs. 



Metallography, etc. 



International Committee for Investigating the Constituents of 

 Steel.* — The confused state of knowledge on the subject of the con- 

 stituents of steel, and the want of agreement as to their number, 

 characteristics, and modes of formation, have led, at the instance of 

 K,. T. Glazebrook and H. le Chatelier, to the selection of an inter- 

 national committee, which will undertake researches with the object of 

 arriving at authoritative conclusions, and of drawing up a common 

 system of nomenclature. The difficulties met with in the study of the 

 constituents of steel are due to (1) the numerous allotropic states in 

 which iron exists, (2) the fine state of division of the constituents, (3) 

 the impossibility of separating by chemical means the different solid 

 solutions present in quenched steels, owing to the similarity of their 

 properties. The programme of preliminary researches proposed to be 

 undertaken, to determine the conditions under which the various con- 

 stituents are produced, is given. The co-operation of independent 

 investigators will be welcomed. 



Cobalt Steels.f — L. Guillet finds that the effect of cobalt upon iron, 

 is, contrary to what has been supposed, altogether different to that of 



* Rev. Metallurgie, ii. (1905) pp. 329-34. t Tom. cit., pp. 348-9. 



