162 NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 



SO constant and remarkable as to afford excellent diagnostic 

 characters, as the author had shown upwards of a quarter of 

 a century since, in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' 

 June 14, 1842; and he regards the whole facts revealed by 

 this purely microscopic inquiry as of much taxonomic value. 



On the Preservation of Compound Ascidians.— Mr. C. W. 

 Peach, in a paper read before the Royal Physical Society of 

 Edinburgh, stated that, when living at Cornwall, he was 

 much struck by the beauty of the compound ascidians so 

 abundant on rocks, &c., between tide-marks there, and that 

 he was perfectly aware that the beauty of the colours and 

 flower-like systems of these lovely objects was always lost, 

 whether they were preserved in spirits or any other fluid. 

 He thought of Canada balsam — the great difficulty of contend- 

 ing Avith wet objects suggested itself. He, however, tried, 

 and so far succeeded, by laying them on glass (when detached 

 from the rocks), after squeezing out as much as possible of 

 the moisture by first laying them in cotton or linen rag 

 between sheets of blotting-paper, changing tliese as often as 

 required, and doing all as quickly as possible, after taking 

 the object from the sea. Thus dried, they were placed on 

 glass covered with warmed Canada balsam, and covered with 

 another similarly prepared plate of glass, on which sufficient 

 balsam was melted to cover up completely the specimen. It 

 is then allowed to cool under slight pressure, the superfluous 

 balsam scraped off, and sealing-wax put round the edges to 

 form a cell, and thus they were preserved. He exhibited 

 several specimens — some preserved twenty-five years ago — 

 of Leptoclinum, Botryllus, Didemnum, Paracidra, &c., in a. 

 beautifully preserved condition. 



On the Presence of Fungi in the Blood of Healthy Human 



Beings Dr. Lostorfer, of V^ienna, has made some interesting 



researches on the development of a fungus resembling Sar- 

 cina ventriculi in the blood of healthy individuals after 

 removal from the body. His method consists in procuring a 

 drop of blood from a carefully cleaned finger, placing it, with 

 careful precautions as to cleanliness, on a glass slip under a 

 cover glass, and preserving for several days the preparation 

 thus made in a moist atmosphere under a bell-glass. Speci- 

 mens obtained in this way from eleven persons were care- 

 fully examined, day by day, with a Hartnack's No. 10 object- 

 glass (about equivalent to an English -V). On the first two 

 days nothing very definite Avas seen ; but on the third day, 

 almost Avithout exception, Avere seen groups of pale granules, 

 sometimes consisting of two or four only, sometimes of twelve 

 or more. These granules Avere larger than the granules of 



