72 The IrisJi Nahu-alist. 



of close attention to Irish Natural History, he informed us 

 that he had never met with a white Stoat in winter ; but such 

 a specimen certainly exists, from Co. Wexford, in the Dublin 

 Museum of Science and Art,' and Mr. R. M. Barrington has 

 another from Meath.= In the County Cork there is a pack 

 of hounds which are trained to hunt the Stoat in summer, 

 when there is no Fox hunting, and they give excellent sport, 

 but of course are followed on foot. 



Although Mr. J. K- Harting^ seems still to have a lingering 

 hope that the Weasel may yet be found in Ireland, Mr. 

 Iy3-dekker (p. 122) rightly states that " it appears tobe unknown" 

 there, and indeed the question may now, w^e think, be fairly 

 considered as settled that the Weasel does 7iot occur in Ireland. 

 Often as the Weasel has been reported, no specimen has ever 

 been produced, and such specimens as have been produced 

 and submitted to competent naturalists have invariably proved 

 to be Stoats. 



(TO be; concIvUdkd.) 



PROCKKDINGS OF IRISH SOCIETIES. 



ROYATv ZOOI.OGICAI. vSOCIKTV. 



Recent donations comprise a porcupine from C. A. James, Esq ; a 

 Peacock and a pair of White Guinea-fowl from J. Dah', Esq. ; and a 

 cockatoo from Mrs. Paul. Three Great Eagle-Owls, an Axis D^er, two 

 Peccaries, an Ocelot, three Paradoxures, a Viverrine Cat, a Prairie 

 Marmot, two Armadillos, a hundred Java vSparrows, an Aoudad, and an 

 Antelope have been acquired by purchase. 



2,060 persons visited the Gardens in January. 



Dubinin MicroscopicaIv Ci.ub. 



December 2oth. — The Club met at Dr. M'Weeney'S, who showed 

 a series of serial sections of the human central nervous system prepared 

 by Van Gehuchten's modification of Golgi's method. This consists in 

 impregnating the ganglion cells and their processes with chromate of 

 silver b}- immersion of the pieces of tissue in nitrate of silver solution after 

 treatment of bichromate of potash and osmic acid. The finest rami- 

 fications of the non-medullated protoplasmic processes of the nerve-cells 

 can thus be followed, and the method maybe said to have revolutionized 

 our ideas of the structure of the central nervous organs. A peculiarity 

 is that the sections must be mounted without a cover-glass. Contrast 

 sections by Weigert's method were also shown. 



^ Vide Land and IJ'afcv, May 28, 1892. 

 '^ Op. Cii., June 4, 1892. ^ Zoologist, Dec, 1894. 



