118 MEMORANDA. 
of potassium with success. My plan is to expose the animals 
to the vapour. I take a wide-mouthed glass jar, or a close 
box with a glass lid, and introduce a false bottom of perfo- 
rated card; below this I place a fragment of the cyanide, 
which soon fills the chamber with its vapour. The jar or box 
being kept closed, is always ready for the imtroduction of 
insects, which immediately yield to its influence. Even the 
Tarantula, which is remarkably tenacious of life, dies in a 
few minutes. The animal is thus protected from the injury 
which would be caused by contact with the deliquescent and 
corrosive salt. 
The animalcule-nets are round instead of pointed as figured, 
they are thus both handier and more easily made.—W. 8. 
Gipsons, Melbourne, Australia. 
Microscopic Society of Victoria—The Melbourne papers 
notice the formation of a Microscopie Society on the propo- 
sition of Mr. W. 8. Gibbons, the honorary secretary. Of 
course, in a new country, where all are absorbed in money- 
getting, or, in the present critical times, in money-keeping, 
there is considerable difficulty in getting people to work to- 
gether in scientific pursuits. The number of members is 
therefore small, and the desired limitation of membership to 
workers can hardly be strictly adhered to. Microscopists 
there are few, and need to supplement their forces by the 
training of observers; this is being done. The Society 
numbers about fifteen members, of which several are pro- 
vided with good instruments, and are “doing.” Several 
interesting objects, many of them new, have already been 
forwarded to England. The Society meets monthly at the 
residences of members. <A register is kept of colonial micro- 
scopists, their instruments, libraries, collections, and pursuits. 
The subscriptions are devoted to the importation of books 
and appliances for the use of members. The honorary 
secretary invites communications from all sources, and will 
gladly reciprocate with observers elsewhere. 
Communication from Frankfort-on-the-Main.—You will know 
already from my letter I sent you some time ago, that in 
Germany a mutual wish exists amongst microscopists, to 
establish an interchange of preparations. For this purpose, 
however, it is above all things desirable that one and the 
same shape of making and getting up the preparations ought 
to be agreed upon. In the enclosed paper you will find the 
shape, as proposed by the Microscopical Society of Giessen, 
