188 



Journal of Applied Microscopy. 



student is allowed to enter upon his 

 course in Petrography. 



There are twenty-one students taking 

 this laboratory course this year. The 

 course calls for twelve hours a week 

 during the fall and Avinter terms. The 

 subject is taught from Rosenbusch's 

 "Microscopical Physiography of Rock- 

 making Minerals" — translated by J. P. 

 Iddings, and from Dr. M. E. Wadsworth's 

 manuscript notes. 



"Tableaux des Birefringences," by Levy 

 and Lacroix, are used in laboratory work. 

 The college is equipped with twenty-nine 

 Bausch & Lomb microscopes fitted up 

 especially for the college, so that each 

 student is provided with a microscope. 

 The college now has over eight 

 thousand thin sections of minerals 

 and rocks, made expressly for this de- 

 partment from cabinet specimens in the 

 college collections. 



The student is first given a thorough 

 drill in the optical characters of minerals 

 and the use of the microscope in their 

 determination. 



He is then required to do a large 

 amount of laboratory work in studying 

 the hand specimens along with the thin 

 sections, made from chips taken from 

 the hand specimens. After a sufflcient 

 number of known specimens have thus 

 been examined, the student is given a 

 large number of unlabeled specimens of 

 these rocks, upon which he recites. Spe- 

 cial attention is directed towards train- 

 ing the student, so that he can readily 

 determine the ordinary rocks with facil- 

 ity, with the use of a good lens, thus 

 making it as practical as possible for the 

 Mining Engineer. F. H. S. 



The Botanical department of Ohio 

 State University has been making slow 

 but substantial progress for a number of 

 years. The department has its own 

 building, which, although sufficient for 

 present purposes, will soon be too small 

 to accommodate the increasing classes 

 and equipment. On the first floor there 

 is a large lecture room an 1 a special 

 laboratory for systematic botany; also 

 the office of the head professor, a store 

 room, dark room, library, and florist's 

 office. On the second floor is the main 

 laboratory, which will accommodate a 

 section of twenty students; also a special 

 laboratory for advanced students in mor- 

 phology, the assistant's office, and a 

 large room which is used for the botani- 

 cal museum and all of the herbarium ex- 

 cept the Ohio State Herbarium, which is 

 on the first floor. Connected with the 

 building is a large greenhouse which is 

 of much service in supplying material 

 for class use and for illustrative pur- 

 poses. 



The laboratories are furnished with a 



large number of dissecting microscopes, 

 twenty compound microscopes for stu- 

 dents in general classes, and flve com- 

 pound microscopes for the use of profes- 

 sors and advanced students. There are 

 also sterilizers, paraffin ovens, incuba- 

 tors, and microtomes; sufficient though 

 not extensive apparatus for carrying on 

 advanced work in cytology and embry- 

 ology, and enough for the elementary 

 physiology. 



The apparatus added this year will aid 

 materially in carrying on the depart- 

 ment work. The more important pieces 

 are the following: One Bausch & Lomb 

 photo-micrographic camera; one Leitz 

 microscope with compensating oculars 

 and 1-16 oil immersion objective; one 

 Premo senior hand camera; one Bausch 

 & Lomb incubator. J. H. S. 



Mr. Victor H. Bassett, late fellow in 

 chemisti'y in the University of Wiscon- 

 sin, has been appointed to the position 

 of assistant bacteriologist in the Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station connected 

 with the university. 



Will readers of the Journal kindly 

 make the following corrections in the 

 article on page 149, of a typographical er- 

 ror which occurred by reason of the 

 writer's absence at the time the proofs 

 could have been corrected: 



Line 26, change "microscopic" to 

 "Micrographic." 



This misprint is so bad as to be almost 

 good — as a dreadful example of "how 

 not to do it," since it stultifies the article 

 by using one of the words in question in 

 exactly the sense which It was the ob- 

 ject of the article to protest against. Of 

 course "the Micrographic dictionary" 

 was specified on account of its being 

 familiar to all microscopists as a large, 

 thick, clumsy volume. "A microscopical 

 dictionary" might have been mentioned 

 instead, but was not, as it would be a 

 vague, weak, and even equivocal al- 

 lusion; while "the microscopic diction- 

 ary," as given by the printer, is not only 

 inapplicable where it stands, but is also, 

 by an odd coincidence, perfectly appli- 

 cable to the "tiny book" mentioned in 

 contrast below, which also happens to be 

 a dictionary, and microscopic but not 

 microscopical. 



It may be added that, when referring 

 to parts of the instrument or of its out- 

 fit, neither of these words seems to serve 

 as well, or at least to sound as well, as 

 the corresponding noun used in an ad- 

 jective sense; as in speaking of a mi- 

 croscope lens, a microscope object <:r 

 slide, etc. R. H. W. 



Troy, N. Y. 



