QOT 



27 



Cole's " Studios'' , Purchased. 



" Zellbildung und Zellthutung » ... ( From Mr. W. H. Gil- 



(. burb. 



A vote of thanks to the donors was unanimously passed. 



A list of books purchased by the Committee for addition to the Library 

 was read. 



The President said that he had to report to the Club the death of one of 

 their members, which had occurred since their last meeting, a member who, 

 during his lifetime, had exercised a considerable influence in perfecting the 

 instrument with which they worked. He alluded to the death of Mr. Hugh 

 Powell, of the well-known firm of Powell and Lealand. The announce- 

 ment would be received with considerable regret, although it could not be 

 said to be quite unexpected, for having reached his fourscore years and four, 

 it could not be said that his time had been short. What Mr. Powell had 

 done in the perfecting the instrumental parts of the microscope would pro. 

 bably be estimated even more highly in the future than at the present time. 



Mr. Ingpen said he should perhaps be excused for adding to what the 

 President had said, a few words expressive of the great estimation in which 

 he had held the late Mr. Powell. He had known him — not perhaps in- 

 timately — but in his scientific capacity, ever since he (the speaker) was a 

 boy, and he recollected him as a regular attendant at the early meetings of 

 what was then the Microscopical Society of London. From the first time of 

 his official connection with the Club, he always had from Mr. Powell his most 

 cordial recognition and sympathy in their work, and he invariably attended 

 and exhibited at their soirees as long as there were any to come to. He 

 felt that he could not let the occasion pass without paying his personal tri- 

 bute to one to whom microscopy, not only in England, but he might say all 

 over the world, owed so much. 



Mr. Stokes exhibited and described a portable lamp for the microscope, 

 the base of which was made of several rings sliding one within the other, 

 like the joints of a telescope tube. 



Mr. G. C.Karop said, members who had much to do with cutting sections of 

 animal tissues were fully alive to the disadvantages of the ordinary imbed- 

 ding agents, such as paraffin mixtures, wax and oil, &c. In the first place 

 they are messy to work with, secondly, they are difficult to make of the 

 proper consistence, too soft in summer and too hard in winter ; very apt also 

 to shrink away from the specimen or well of the microtome on cooling, and 

 lastly, the greasy material often adheres most obstinately to the section, par- 

 ticularly if this be of irregular outline. There has lately been introduced a 

 form of pyroxylin known as Schering's patent celloidin, used by photo- 

 graphers for making a uniform quality of collodion. It is in the form of flat 

 cakes of extremely tough, horny consistence, and said to be non-explosive, 

 burning like paper, and simply carbonising if heated in a test-tube. The 

 method of using this material as an imbedding agent is as follows : — A 

 sufficient quantity is cut up and dissolved in equal parts of absolute alcohol 

 and absolute methylated ether *717, until the solution is just thin enough to 

 pour. This takes some time, and the mixture should be well stirred daily, 



