"28 JOURNAL OF THE [January, 



time, the whole science of bacteriology has been rendered 

 practicable, and the mysteries of disease and death have been 

 disclosed to seers like Pasteur and Koch, for the benefit of us 

 and all coming generations. 



•ON THE EFFECTS OF HYDROXYLAMINE AS A 



PARALYZING AGENT FOR CONTRACTILE 



ELEMENTS/ 



BY E. A, SCHULTZE. 

 (^Read November 2Qth, 1891.) 



The preparation for microscopical study of animals having ex- 

 ceedingly contractile elements, and which when killed are, in con- 

 sequence of the irritating properties of the embedding material, 

 often rendered unrecognizable, may be added to the more diffi- 

 •cult methods employed in the art of preservation. 



Thus, for instance, in preparing slides of infusoria great diffi- 

 •culties are met in fixing Stentor, Vorticella, Spirostoma, etc., and 

 -it is always a matter of chance if one or the other of these animals 

 .is secured in a partially extended state by the methods in use up 

 ^to the present time. Similar difificulties are encountered in fixing 

 Hydrozoa, and especially Actinozoa, Planariae, Rotifera, and all 

 kinds of mollusca, etc., all of which shrink more or less under the 

 ■influence of the preservative reagents. 



In order to overcome as far as possible these difificulties which 

 •occur in course of scientific investigation, and especially in slides 

 prepared for school use, two methods have been adopted which 

 .in some few cases have proved successful. 



At first the attempt was made to instantly kill metabolic animals 

 in a distended state by means of extremely effective agents, such 

 as Lang's solution, which may be successfully used on Planariae, 

 osmic acid for many Protozoa, corrosive sublimate, and other boil- 

 ing reagents. But as the effects produced by these methods, de- 

 spite their excellent preserving qualities, are generally restricted, 

 the trial was made to paralyze the contractile elements by means 



1 Abstract and translation from an article by Dr. Bruno Hofer in Zeitschrift f iir wis- 

 ■senschaftliche Mikroskopie, vii. 318 (1890). 



