‘PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 39 
important memoir by W. K. Brooks on the anomalous mode of 
development of Salpa, a Tunicate, has appeared.” We may observe, 
in conclusion, that Mr. Packard’s own labours have not been surpassed 
by any of those he has mentioned; and though his modesty as the 
writer of the paper prevented any notice of himself, we must take 
this opportunity of recording the fact of his being one of the first 
comparative anatomists in the United States. 
The Examination of Muscular Fibres.—The ‘American Naturalist’ 
(October) publishes a note, in which a mode of double staining these 
structures is described. It is as follows:—Dr. Geo. D. Beatty calls 
attention to the Lissotriton punctatus (the smooth-skin newt) and the 
Amphiuma tridactylum as microscopical treasures, the muscular fibres, 
especially of the tongue, being particularly beautiful, the transverse 
striz being very well marked, and the nuclei very large in both species, 
and greatly elongated in Amphiuma, stretching one-third across the 
field with a ith objective and A ocular. The tissues should be 
double, stained for the nuclei with carmine and with picric acid 
to bring out the transverse striwe. The tissue is hardened by 95 
per cent. alcohol, followed by absolute alcohol, and sections cut in a - 
section machine or fibres teased out carefully with needles. The 
sections or threads are placed for one minute in 25 per cent. alcohol, 
soaked for five minutes in Dr. J. J. Woodward’s borax-carmine 
solution, soaked about ten minutes in alcohol acidulated with 20 
per cent. of hydrochloric acid until the carmine is nearly removed 
from all parts except the nuclei, washed in alcohol for a few minutes, 
the solution being changed until free from acid; then placed for one- 
half to one minute in an alcoholic solution, one-twelfth grain to one 
ounce of picric acid, washed in alcohol, and transferred through 
absolute alcohol and oil of cloves to balsam for mounting. 
The Matrix of Articular Cartilage—Myr. H. A. Reeves writes from 
the London Hospital to the ‘ British Medical Journal’ (November 11) 
as follows. He says that having “for some months past been engaged 
in the study of joints, I have had occasion to apply various methods, 
too numerous to mention here; but I wish to bring under the notice 
of histologists some means by which the demonstration of the struc- 
ture of so-called hyaline cartilage may readily be accomplished. The 
perusal of Dr. Thin’s paper on the ‘Structure of Hyaline Cartilage’ * 
stimulated the conviction which I have long held and taught as to the 
uniformity of structure; and I have endeavoured to convince myself 
of the existence of normal fibrillation in human cartilage, if it were 
possible. Some weeks ago I placed the fresh articular elbow-ends of 
the humerus, ulna, and radius of a woman aged 65, whose arm had 
been amputated for the results of senile gangrene, in a 0°5 per cent. 
silver solution for ten minutes. They were then removed and exposed 
to the light in the dry state (i.e. without being placed in any liquid) 
for nearly three days. I had intended to examine them at once, but 
other work prevented it. On making horizontal thin sections, and 
examining them first as they were and without a cover-glass, and sub- 
sequently other similar sections in glycerine, I was struck with the 
* ¢Quarterly Microscopical Journal, January 1876. 
