INVERTEBRATA, CRYPTOGAMIA, MICROSCOPY, ETC, 497 



by Dr. von Koch, tlie bard and soft tissues were maintained in tbcir 

 exact rcbxtions to one another, and both were reduced to a sufficient 

 thinness to exhibit the minute structure in all essential details. Mr. 

 Moseley considers the method will yield valuable results, not only in 

 the c ISO of corals, but also in all other problems of minute anatomy in 

 which the relations of bard and soft parts have to be determined. It 

 might perhaps be employed with advantage in the examination of the 

 structure of Corti's organ. Sections could thus be prepared of the 

 undecalcified cochlea, in which the components of the organ of Corti 

 would be seen in situ and unaltered by the action of acids. Sec- 

 tions of injected bone showing the relations of the blood-vessels to the 

 Haversian system, sections across the arms of undecalcified Crinoids 

 and starfish, and many similar preparations suggest themselves as 

 likely to yield valuable results. 



Localities for Marine Foraminifera. — With regard to localities 

 for marine Foramiiiifcsra along coast regions. Professor Leidy remarks* 

 that sea-sands contain as an imj^ortant constituent the dead shells of 

 I'ecent Foraminifera, though in very variable projwrtions. They are 

 generally most abundant in the sands of warmer latitudes, and espe- 

 cially on shores profusely furnished with sea-weeds. Plancus,t who, 

 according to D'Oibigny, was the first to describe and figure the shells 

 of Foraminifera, counted GOOO individuals in an ounce of sand from 

 the A<lriatic. D'Orhigiiy estimated that there were 160,000 in a gram 

 of selected sand from the Antilles. Schultze gives 1,500,000 as the 

 number he found in fifteen grams of sand from Gaeta, on the coast of 

 Sicily. 



Even on the comparatively barren shores of New Jersey, con- 

 sisting of quartz sand, forarainiferous shells occur in notable quantity. 

 In a portion scraped from the surface between tides, at Atlantic < 'ity, 

 he estimated that there were 18,700 shells to the ounce avoirdupois, 

 all of a single species of Nonionina, In another sample, from Cape 

 May, he obtained 38,400 shells to the ounce, likewise of the one 

 species. In sand collected by scraping up the long white lines on 

 the bathing beach at Newport, lihode Island, occupying an indenture 

 of the rocky coast, covered with sea-weeds, foraminiferous shells were 

 found to be much more numerous, biit, excepting in the case of some 

 samples of Miliola, of smaller size. In au ounce of the sand, there 

 were about 280,000 shells, of several genera and species. 



Separating Foraminifera from Sand.J — Mr. C. M. Vorcc finds 

 that if dried sponge sund is thrown into water slowly, all the foramini- 

 fers sink, and sand floats on the water. A slide dipjjed under the 

 floating film will bring up only sand. All that does not sink with a 

 little stirring may be safely skimmed ofi' and thrown away. Then the 

 smiken \mvt shoidd be dipped out, about a dessert-spoonful at a time, 

 into a small saucer, and water enough to just fairly cover them put 



* Sof- this Journal, luitr, p. 2kS. 



t * ArimiiunsiH dc cornliis miinih iictis,' Vciiicf, ITd'J, 



X 'Am. Nut.,' xiv. (,1S^1>) I'- M^"- 



