ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 309 



culture is transferred to one of the larger drops. This drop is now 

 brought into observation under the Microscope, and a number of bacilli 

 in medium dilution are drawn into a fine pointed pipette. The rows of 

 hanging drops are then brought into view, and a minute droplet, con- 

 taining a single bacillus, is ejected from the pipette in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of each drop. If a proper dilution has been used, this 

 is not difficult, but the droplet must be very small, so that the presence 

 of a single cell may be readily determined. When a sufficient number 

 of these minute single-cell droplets have been placed beside hanging 

 drops, sterile broth is taken into a second fine pipette and is added to 

 each hanging drop so as to make it over-run and absorb the adjacent 

 inoculated droplet. The cover is then removed from the isolation 

 chamber and sealed over a shallow moist chamber. On the following 

 day, inoculations may be made from the hanging drops into test-tubes. 



(2j Preparing- Objects. 



New Method of Examining the Cells in the Cerebrospinal Fluid.* 

 B. Schliichterer advocates the use of sublimate when examining cerebro- 

 spinal fluid. The solution is composed of sublimate, 3grm. ; acetic acid, 

 1 c.cm. ; distilled water, 100 c.cm. To about 4 c.cm. of the fluid 

 placed in a centrifuge tube, the solution is added drop by drop until the 

 cerebrospinal fluid becomes milky. After shaking up, the fluid is 

 centrifuged and then smears are made of the deposit. After the films 

 are dried the slides are placed in iodine-alcohol for five minutes. The 

 iodine is removed by a thorough washing with 70 p.c. alcohol. AVhen 

 dry the films are stained with methyl-green-pyronin solution for ten 

 minutes ; after which they are dried and examined. The chief ad- 

 vantages claimed for this method are that probably all the cells are 

 deposited, that the deposit makes good films, with no tendency to wash 

 off, and that the pictures of the cells are excellent. 



Washing Pieces of Tissue for Histological Purposes. f — E. Beatti 

 describes a simple method of washing pieces of tissue to get rid of fixa- 

 tives, decalcifying agents, etc., the presence of which might have a harm- 

 ful effect on the after-treatment of the material. Many of the apparatus 

 devised for washing tissues are complicated and sometimes costly. The 

 author's method, which he has used for many years, is quite cheap and 

 simple. It consists in fitting to the nose of an ordinary watertap an 

 " antisplash " regulator and directing the stream near to the side of an 

 ordinary tumbler. Owing to the direction of the currents set up there 

 is no tendency for the pieces which are being washed to escape over the 

 edge of the tumbler, most of which margin remains quite dry. 



Demonstrating the Chromosomes of the Fowl.| — Alice M. Boring 

 and R. Pearl in their investigation on the spermatogenesis of the 

 domestic fowl, used pure barred Plymouth rock and cross-bred males, 

 varying in age from five months to two years. Three general methods 



* Neurol. Qentralbl, xxxii. (1914) pp. 420-2. 

 t Zeitschr. wiss. Mikrosk., xxx. (1914) pp. 485-7 (1 fig.). 

 X Journ. Exper. Zool., xxi. (1914) pp. 53-83 (91 figs.). 



