CATALOGUE OF THE MIiICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 137 
serve sixty-three slides illustrating the structure of the shells 
of the Mollusca, presented by Dr. Carpenter. The section 
of the shell of the recent Rhyncconella psittacea is, we notice, 
entered in the catalogue as Atrypa psittacea. Surely the 
compiler of the Catalogue could not have meant to expunge 
the genus Rhynconella from the Brachiopoda, and amalga- 
mate it with Atrypa; this must be a slight oversight. To 
Professor Hyrtl, of Prague, the Society is indebted for 
twenty-four beautiful injections of the kidneys, intestines, 
&e., of various animals. Mr. Crum, of Glasgow, has en- 
riched the collection by thirty-four slides of cotton-fibre, 
variously prepared and mounted, which illustrate a series of 
researches, published not long since, by that gentleman. 
The richest part, however, of the Microscopical Society’s 
cabinet is that which contains its series of diatoms. From 
every quarter of the globe there are examples of these minute 
organisms, some presented by naturalist-travellers, others by 
residents in the distant regions whence they come, others, 
again, casually observed among they contents of a bottle of 
sea or river water. A group of various forms is presented by 
Mr. G. Blenkins, taken by him from the Tchernaya River, 
Sebastopol; others are there from Calcutta, Hong Kong, the 
Andaman Islands, and Melbourne. 
The Catalogue, which must prove very serviceable to the 
members of the Society, is arranged in an alphabetical order ; 
when such words as Diatomacez, Shell, &c., are arrived at, 
the various specimens belonging to that series are arranged 
underneath them; but they also occur in the proper alpha- 
betical order, indicated by their names. 
It would be unfair to institute a comparison between the 
two collections we have been noticing. That of the College 
of Surgeons is, of course, by far the larger, and exceeds the 
Microseopical Society’s particularly in histological speci- 
mens; but the cabinets of the latter contain very many 
specimens which are well worthy of the attention and obser- 
vation of the student. One peculiar and very admirable 
feature about the management of the collection of the 
Microscopical Society is that the members of the Society 
are allowed to take out twenty slides from the collection at a 
time, and retain them for three weeks, thus establishing a 
system, with regard to the microscopic objects, similar to 
that adopted in the management of circulating libraries. The 
plan appears to us most excellent. 
We heartily recommend those of our readers who are really 
interested in the use of the microscope, and have a little 
leisure time, to make the best of their way to Lincoln’s Inn 
