1885.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. Ill 



life-cycles are as clearly definable as those of a crustacean or a 

 bird. No vital phenomenon not to be found amongst higher 

 and larger organisms, is discoverable here. Only the methods 

 of specific mutation resulting from the secular processes enun- 

 ciated in the Darwinian law are in operation." 



The Working Session of the American Society of 

 MiCROSCOPiSTS. — The Executive Committee of the American 

 Society of Microscopists having appointed me Director of the 

 Working Session of the Society for the meeting to be held at 

 Cleveland, Ohio, next August, I have prepared the following 

 scheme of work for that occasion. The general theory of the 

 plan is to illustrate methods of research in the main, leaving the 

 details, which are merely matters of mechanical execution, to be 

 treated as subsidiary matters, since the available limits of the 

 Working Session are insufficient to cover the whole ground at 

 any one meeting. 



scheme of demonstrations. 



1. The use of the Micro-Spectroscope, and its applications to 

 original research. 



2. The use of the Polariscope in original investigations. 



3 Photomicrography, and its applications as an aid to research. 



4. The use of the Camera Lucida ; various styles and methods. 



5. Micrometry ; illustration of different methods. 



6. Cultivating bacteria ; exposition of different methods. 



7. Injecting vessels and tissues ; exposition of different 

 methods. 



8. Staining tissues, etc., in mass. Simple and compound 

 stainings. 



9. Staining sections. Simple and compound stainings. 



10. Section cutting — soft tissues. Use of various microtomes. 



11. Section cutting — hard substances. Methods of cutting 

 and grinding. 



12. Section cutting. Serial sections. 



13. Use of the Dissecting Microscope. Methods and appar- 

 atus. 



14. Practical demonstration of the relation of aperture to 

 power in microscope objectives. 



