24 JOURNAL OF THE [April, 



ing preparation of the object, and its real value. It is from the 

 point of view, therefore, that no pains can be taken too great for 

 the proper completion of a mount, that the following suggestions 

 are offered on methods devised and mostly in use, for several 

 years past, in the Laboratory of Microbiology of Columbia 

 College, New York. Some of these have been carried over the 

 country by our graduates and so made known to a certain de- 

 gree, but, to my knowledge, have not been otherwise published. 



I. Carrier of Cover-Impressions. 



In the collection of cover-impressions of various organisms, in 

 the field, such as films of diatoms just spread upon thin covers, 

 desmids, blood corpuscles, pollen, etc., it is sometimes impos- 



FlG. I. 



sible, while travelling rapidly, to dry the covers and safely pack 

 them up at once for conveyance in small boxes, in the usual way. 

 On one occasion, five years ago, while collecting upon covers the 

 mycoderm-films of certain bacteria and fungi in the hilly country 

 of Western Massachusetts, I felt the need of some convenient 

 apparatus for immediate storage of the covers, while still moist, 

 so that they might be carried with safety, without adherence, 

 abrasion of the film, or breakage. A hint of a convenient method 

 came from a note by F. L. James' on a simple cover-glass 

 holder, consisting of a coil of brass spiral spring wire, bent 

 around a groove in a cork, the whole being mounted upon a little 

 wooden stand for laboratory use. This suggested the little car- 

 rier here presented (Fig. i ), in which the cork (C), encircled by the 

 ~~~~~ 1 Jour. Roy. Mic. Soc. (1887), 693. 



