142 EECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



instance, is one of the commonest things that exist, yet nobody 

 certainly knows whether it has any other mode of reproduction except 

 by fission. The skill which I have seen displayed here is of immense 

 value in such kind of work, and if only applied to it must very soon 

 bring some good results. The like is true also of the Acinetce ; we 

 know something about them, but nothing like a complete history: 

 and it is a perfect opprobrium to science that nobody knows what an 

 Amoeba is. I do not mean to say that we do not know the things we 

 call by that name when we see them, but that we are unable to say 

 with certainty what are their modes of reproduction, what are their 

 various states, which are animal and which are vegetable. 



" Turn to the study of development, the whole of which is in a pro- 

 gressive state. We are now carrying it so far that we can trace back a 

 single group of organs to a particular portion of the dividing yolk 

 mass, and the ultimate result will probably be to trace out each group 



of organs to the blastomeres from which it has proceeded This 



is the kind of service which those members of the Club may perform 

 who feel inclined for it ; it is work which may be of very great value, 

 and which certainly cannot be undertaken by those who have to 

 occupy themselves with science as a whole." 



Curiosities of Microscopical Literature. — The increase of cheap 

 periodicals, and the demand for " popular " articles on scientific 

 subjects, has unfortunately been the ready means of disseminating a 

 vast amount of error, which it will be far more difficult to eradicate. 

 The turn of the Microscope appears now to have come, judging from 

 a series of articles * which have recently appeared, and from which 

 we extract the two following paragraphs out of many more of a 

 similar character. 



" Turning from the practical and useful applications of the 

 Microscope to the human subject, we find that among the scientific 

 questions settled by its means it has correctly defined the line between 

 the vegetable and animal kingdoms. This was a matter of some 

 moment ; it had occasioned endless discourse, contradiction and argu- 

 ments, and, although now put conclusively at rest, some people would 

 consider it erroneous to class a moving isolated body as a vegetable." 



" In the lower forms of life, found in ponds and ditches, so deep 

 have the researches into every available form been carried by studious 

 observation, that the minute animals and vegetables more generally 

 distributed throughout the country have been classified, named, and their 

 natural history as correctly related as those of the mammalia. These 

 minute organisms, before invisible and unknown, have been observed 

 by indefatigable and acute observers as closely as we can observe 

 the larger animals. The result of this has been that the information 

 respecting them is as complete, perfect, interesting, and almost as 

 useful as that of any other department of nature." 



Kossman's Glass Photograms.— Professor Kossman, of Heidel- 

 berg, has superintended the preparation of a series of 250 " photo- 

 grams," on glass, intended for exhibition by the sciopticon, and to 

 * ' Design and Work,' vi. (1879) p. 68, &c. 



