Journal of Applied Microscopy. 623 



marked white paper. The total number in the several squares gives the number 

 of organisms in the quantity of sample taken. 



The second process for the isolation and separate cultivation of specific 

 organisms is conducted as follows : 



Plates, as before, are used, and the gelatin is inoculated with a small quan- 

 tity of the material. Individual colonies are selected for observation, and 

 secondary inoculations are made from them. Pure cultures are thus obtained, 

 and various media are again inoculated with these. The behavior of the 

 growths on the various media under lower (20° C.) and higher (37° C.) temper- 

 ature are observed, and microscopical slides are made from them. 



Dr. Hobson's results are interesting, and he hopes, when he has obtained a 

 sufficient number of them, to be able to trace the effects of heat and of rainfall 

 upon the bacterial population of the sewers. J. H. Cooke. 



London, Eng. 



Method of Teaching Botany.— While the extensive revision in botanical 

 nomenclature has been going on during the greater part of the last decade, the 

 method of teaching the subject has been rapidly evolving until the real live 

 teacher of the subject wonders, first, how under the old method he ever became 

 what he is, and second, how some who still hold to a method much in vogue 

 over ten years ago, can hope to properly place the subject before the minds of 

 the students who are just starting into the field of botany. 



It would not be easy to say just what has brought about this change. It 

 may be that when the State Experiment Stations began to be established, some 

 of the leading instructors in this branch of science in the United States saw that 

 there would be a limited demand for men prepared to fill botanical positions, and 

 that they therefore turned more attention toward fitting men to be practical bot- 

 anists who could not only display a knowledge of the binomial nomenclature but 

 who could tell about the whole relation of the vegetable kingdom, and who could 

 at least attempt to explain the sources and dispositions of plant food. Whatever 

 may have been the cause or causes, the result is thus far at least most commend- 

 able ; namely, to give the student a fair idea of the plant in relation to its sur- 

 roundings, the relation of one organ to another, and some notion of the diseases 

 of plants. 



However, this is but a decade in an age of evolution, for more men are com- 

 ing who will attempt to solve new problems with now unthought of apparatus. 



E. E. BoGUE. 



Agricultural and Mechanical College, Stillwater, O. T. 



The U-SHAPED Foot is Clumsy. — In saying anything on this subject, I 

 shall most likely be accused of threshing over old straw, but I fancy there is a 

 very large number of persons who use microscopes that will agree with the 

 statements I am about to make. As I have done, so they have done, and may 

 do again and again, viz., purchase a new microscope or a dozen of them, all 

 having the narrow and clumsy horseshoe foot, because it happens to be the 

 style of support for the instrument we select. Nineteen years ago I selected 



