PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 279 



the crisis. On the occasion of a short communication which Dr. Ober- 

 meier made in the Medical Society of Berlin describing his discovery, 

 Langenbeck pointed out the great importance of this fact. Dr. Neds- 

 vetzki also discusses the elementary mobile corpuscles observed in 

 normal blood by Zimmermann, Hensen, Schultze, Kiihne, and lately 

 by Vulpian, and known by Sanderson's designation of microzymes. 

 These corpuscles have been classed by Bettelheim in three grades : 

 corpuscles visible under an enlargement of 650 diameters, those visible 

 only under an enlargement of 1500 diameters, and bacillar corpuscles 

 having half the size of the red blood corpuscles. Nedsvetzki describes 

 in normal blood a considerable quantity of small corpuscles of the 

 size of the nuclei of the white corpuscles. They appear clear or 

 opaque according to the light. They present movements in the 

 direction of their axis, or lateral oscillations. He proposes to desig- 

 nate them nuclei of the blood, or hsemococci. He describes also fila- 

 ments, probably of a fibrinous character, which are developed in the 

 preparations. He dwells on the transformation of these white globules 

 examined in the wet chamber, and on the movements which the granu- 

 lations of the white globules present. 



The 3Iorphology of Car ex. — It is remarkable how much we have to 

 learn yet on this point. At a meeting of the Linnean Society, March 

 6th, Mr. Bentham read some remarks on the homology of the perigy- 

 nium of the female flowers of Carex, and the subject was again 

 discussed at the meeting on April 14th. He suggested the theory 

 that the perigynium and seta represent the stamens of the male flowers. 

 It appears, however, to be certain that the seta is an axial and not a 

 foliar structure, and that when developed it usually bears rudimentary 

 flowers, as in C.pulicaris. The perigynium under these circumstances 

 can hardly be looked upon as perianthial. On tho whole Kunth's 

 view, according to which it consists of a single bract with anteriorly 

 conuate edges and bearing the ovary in its axil, is probably correct. 

 Some botanists, taking into consideration the manifest bidentate 

 condition of the perigynium, will still probably prefer to compare it 

 with the two lateral bracts in Cahjptrocarya. 



Dr. Engelmann's View as to the Structure of Muscle. — One of much 

 importance, especially now that Mr. Schafer * has rather revolutionized 

 our ideas on the subject. He (Dr. Engelmann) contributes an article 

 on the subject of the structure of muscle to Pfluger's ' Archiv,' Band 

 vii. Heft i. He laments the difficulty of obtaining the crystalline 

 arthropods of the sea, and observes that the tolerably transparent 

 Cyclops, Gammarus, Asellus, Hydrachinda, and Insect larva as 

 Corethra plumicoreus of fresh water are only to be obtained in small 

 and insufficient numbers. For the examination of muscular fibres no 

 reagents or saline solutions should be used ; they should simply be 

 placed in a moist chamber, and be examined as rapidly as possible 

 after removal from the living body. Insect muscles can undergo great 

 changes in structure before they lose their excitability. He has used 



* We are compelled to " cut out " Mr. Sch'afer's paper through the pressure 

 caused by the Iudex. 



