215 



The thanks of the meeting were voted to the Donors. 



The President read a letter from Mr. F. H. Wenham, in acknowledgment 

 of his election as an Hon. Member of the Club, and expressed the hope that 

 Mr. Wenham would come amongst them to see for himself what kind of 

 work they were doing, and to give them the benefit of his experience. 



A paper " On Some Immature Forms of Diatoms," bj Mr. G. C. Karop, 

 was read by the Secretaiy, and the thanks of the meeting were voted to 

 the author. 



Mr H. J. Roper read a paper " On a Method of Mounting Opaque 

 Objects in Cells made of Sheet Wax."' Specimens in illustration were 

 exhibited in the room. 



Mr. Hem-y Morland read a paper " On IMounting Opaque Objects with 

 Bees-wax." 



The Pi-esident said he had listened with great pleasure to these two 

 very useful papers on a similar subject, and he must say that the 

 specimens exhibited by Mr. Roper were some of the neatest and best 

 specimens of wax mounting which he had seen for a long time, and that 

 his plan of using sheet wax was one which appeared likely to be very 

 useful. 



Mr. Ingpen said that Prof. Hamilton Smith gave them a paper some time 

 ago on this subject,* but he had lately stated that he was obliged to give up 

 the plan because of the dewing or exudation which collected under the cover- 

 ing glass. This was a matter of considerable interest. These cells were very 

 useful, from the absence of granular structure in the background, which 

 might easily be rendered a dead black, or any suitable colour. 



The President said the structureless character of the wax was one of its 

 most valuable properties, and personally he felt very much indebted to Mr. 

 Stewart for introducing to their notice the use of Ozokerit for this purpose. 

 Perhaps Mr. Stewart would tell them his experiences of it ? 



Mr. Stewart said he bad not used this material for mounting purposes, 

 but only for pinning down objects for dissection, in the way he had 

 already described. He was not particularly partial to coloured back- 

 grounds, because, however pleasing they might be to the eye, they were 

 apt to produce a false idea of colour by the effect of contrast. He pre- 

 ferred to mount on the ordinary slip and cover the glass on the reverse 

 side with Berlin black. 



Mr. Roper said that although black wax could not be obtained, the 

 surface could easily be coloured with Indian ink. 



Mr. Gilburt said he had been in the habit of using wax for a long time 

 past by building up the ce]ls, and when made in this way the dewing which 

 had been complained of, had not appeared. The plan adopted was that of 

 spinning the wax up on the slide itself, using melted wax, and doing it 

 upon the turn-table ; the cover adhered by itself, and, so far as his ex- 

 perience went, there was no condensation of moisture whatever, the heat- 

 ing of the wax seemed to get rid of the volatile element. In finishing off 

 he found it best to use first a thin coating of oxide of zinc in gum water, 



* " Journal Q.M.C ," Vol. iv., p. 177. 



