56 



between the glasses being sufficient to allow of Anacharis 5 in. long to be 

 inserted without pressure, at the same time enabling the collector to bring 

 all parts of the weed into good focus. By the insertion of an indiarubber 

 flat cork the bottle is rendered water tight, and can be used as a slide on 

 the stage of the microscope so as to obviate the necessity of disturbing the 

 weed should any object of interest be observed when collecting. He also 

 showed a simple and effective method of straining the water poured into 

 or out of an ordinary wide-mouthed collecting bottle, by means of a small 

 cylinder of copper wire gauze which extended np above the neck of the 

 bottle. 



Mr. Waddington said he could speak very favourably of the first de- 

 scribed form of collecting bottle, having nsed the same thing for the last 

 two yeax-s when collecting Zoophytes at the seaside. The only difficulty he 

 had found was in getting a cement which would stand the action of sea 

 water. He had, however, used with entire success a sea water varnish made 

 of marine glue dissolved in chloroform, which he found was entirely im- 

 pervious to sea water. It formed a thick paste, and was used cold. It 

 was an excellent varnish for the joints of square aquaria. 



Mr. Hardy said he had used liquid marine glue, and a great many other 

 cements, but he found simple lard would do almost as well as anything else. 

 Some chemical action seemed to take place which hardened the lard. 



Mr. Karop exhibited and described a very simple and ingenious gauge 

 made by H. Hensoldt for measuxang the thickness of cover glasses. It was 

 graduated to measure from up to -J mm. 



The thanks of the meeting were voted to Mr. Kitton, Mr. Hardy, and Mr. 

 Karop for their communications. 



The President directed the attention of the members to the book contain*, 

 ing the x-esults of the work done at the excursions, and referred to the list 

 of objects obtained on the last two occasions. 



Announcements of excursions and meetings for the ensuing month were 

 then made, special attention being called to the whole day's excux-sion 

 toWhitstable on July 5th, ixx connectioxx with which a letter was read, aixd 

 members intending to join were l'equested to give in their names at once to 

 Mi\ Parsons. Members were also reminded that the next ordinary meeting, 

 on July 25tb, would be the annual meeting. 



The proceedings then terminated with the usual conversazione, and the 

 following objects were exhibited: — 



Fredericella sultana ... ... ... ... Mr. F. W. Andrew. 



Mervnis nigrescens ... ... ... ... Mr. R. T. Lewis. 



Ova of Mermis nigrescens ... ... ... ,, 



Trichodeies scalaris ... ... ... ... Mr. T. S. Morten. 



Trans, sect, of leaf of Cryptomence japoniea... Mr. J. W. Reed. 

 ,, ,, „ Cryptomence elegans ... ,, 



Asplanc/ma Brightwellii ... ... ... Mr. C. Rousselet. 



Trans, sec. central canal of spinal cord of Calf Mr. F. Steele. 

 Attendance — .Members 48 j Visitors 2. 



