PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 267 



the dried specimens on account of their extreme brittleness was mentioned 

 at the conclusion of the paper, and the President asked if any Fellow 

 knew any device by which anything could he made of a desiccated speci- 

 men such as that before him. 



Mr. Wesche suggested a mixture of xylol and phenol, which he said 

 would clear most structures, thick or thin — 2 parts of xylol to 1 of 

 phenol. 



The President said he had tried in various ways to cut the polyps and 

 to mount them whole, but always with the result that the whole thing 

 crumbled to dust. 



Dr. Hebb thought something might be done by imbedding the objects 

 in celloidin, and retaining the celloidin with the sections so as to keep 

 them from coming to pieces. The celloidin would not at all interfere 

 with the examination of the object, for though the usual practice was to 

 dissolve it out, this was not at all necessary. 



Mr. A. A. C. E. Merlin's paper, "On the Measurement of the First 

 Nine Groups of Grayson's finest Twelve-band Plate," was read by Dr. 

 Hebb. 



Mr. F. H. Collins' paper, " On the Labelling of Microscope Slides," 

 was read by Dr. Hebb. In it the author complained of the inconvenience 

 arising through no uniform system having hitherto been adopted, the 

 general practice being for the name of the object to be written parallel 

 to the short ends of the slide, in which position it was impossible to read 

 it when placed upon the stage — whereas if written parallel to the slides 

 it could be easily read when in that position. The communication was 

 accompanied by drawings of slides as, in the opinion of the author, they 

 should, and should not, be labelled. 



Dr. Spitta thought the reason slides were marked in the usual manner 

 was not far to seek : it was simply because they could be read in the 

 cabinet far easier than if they were written in the manner just suggested. 



Mr. A. D. Michael said he rose to repair an omission on their part — 

 it was obvious that the President could not propose a vote of thanks to 

 himself for what had been an extremely interesting communication, and 

 he was sure the Society was very much obliged to him for bringing the 

 specimens and for describing them in such a lucid manner. He had, 

 therefore, very great pleasure in moving that the best thauks of the 

 Society be given to the President for the very interesting paper he had 

 given them in opening their proceedings that evening. 



The proposal having been seconded by Mr. C. F. Rousselet, was put 

 to the Meeting and carried unanimously. 



The President, in thanking the Meeting for the vote of thanks which 

 they had so cordially passed, said he wished to offer his own thanks to 

 Messrs. Angus and Co., for the loan of the Microscopes under which the 

 specimens had been shown in illustration of his paper. 



