2080 



Journal of Applied Microscopy 



cleaning and the washing of hands, there being a large shelf above this sink 

 supporting large containers of such disinfecting solutions as formaldehyde, car- 

 bolic acid, and bichloride of mercury for general use. For the support of 

 funnels, sauce-pans, flasks, and other apparatus, each table is provided with a 

 socket into which a brass rod 14 inches long can be screwed when desired. 

 This can be shared by two men in common, can be removed and kept in a 

 drawer when not in use, and forms a much more stable support than the ordinary 

 laboratory stand with the iron base. Blackboards and microscope lockers are 

 conveniently placed between the windows, and the blank walls are provided with 

 hooks for hats and coats. 



The floors throughout the entire laboratories are of cement. The tables are 

 all of oak, and have their tops ebonized by the hydrochlorate of an anilin 

 process. Joseph MlFarland. 



Medico-Chirurgical College, Philadelphia. 



A New Method of Embedding Small Objects. 



The difficulty and annoyance due to the usual methods of embedding in 

 paraffin loose, minute objects, for example, Echinoderm eggs, are familiar 

 experiences of all workers in cytology. As a matter of fact, no really satisfac- 

 tory methods are at present employed, 

 and most of them are at best awkward 

 and tedious. In embedding in a paraflfin- 

 drop on a slide, or in using the watch- 

 glass method, it is difficult to keep the 

 objects close together, and even when 

 this is obviated, as in Boveri's method 

 of wrapping Echinoderm eggs in the 

 sloughed epidermis of Amphibia and thus 

 confining them, the process is an irksome 

 and unsatisfactory one. The same is true 

 of the various methods of embedding in glass tubes, one of which is to break 

 off the glass after cooling, leaving the objects behind in the paraffin. 



To do away with all of these objections I have devised a special form of glass 

 dish in which such objects may be embedded with the utmost ease, and which 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



Fir,. 



effectually prevents them from scattering. The dish is a flat, solid watch-glass, 

 containing a shallow concavity, in the bottom of which is moulded a narrow, 

 slot-like groove or trough. (Fig. 1.) 



When the objects are ready for embedding, they are transferred to the dish, 

 filled with melted paraffin and kept warm on the bath, by carefully dropping 



