40 PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 
appearance of straight bands running in various directions and planes, 
separated by bright but somewhat interrupted lines, which in some 
parts appeared to be made up of minute round elements, reminding 
one of the ‘elastic grains’ described and figured by Ranvier. I 
must mention that the cartilages were washed in ordinary water 
before immersion in the silver, and that the capitellum was rubbed 
with a clean towel, in order to get rid of adhering synovia. My 
object in doing this was to avoid any false appearances caused by the 
deposition of silver in the synovia and the subsequent shrinking of 
the latter. Thinking that this appearance might perhaps be due 
either to the age of the woman or to the fact of the limb having been 
so long inflamed, or to the change effected during the three days the 
cartilages were exposed, I examined the cartilages of younger people 
very shortly after removal, fresh and without any reagent, and also 
after staining in gold, silver, and aniline dyes; also in salt solution. 
I almost invariably recognized the same appearances ; but they are 
not so distinct in fresh as in stained preparations. The fibres are 
perfectly straight, in this respect and in others differing from those 
figured by Dr. Thin of the kitten and sheep. In some of the sections, 
rounded, oval, and irregular figures—probably the transverse sections 
of similar fibres—were visible; but on this and other interesting 
appearances I intend to dilate more fully ere long. It is important 
to note that these appearances are not in any way artificial or due to 
the methods used, as perhaps may be said of the methods Dr. Thin 
employed, and of those of Tillmanns and Baber. The fibrillation is a 
continuous right-lined one, differing much from that figured by Till- 
manns and Baber. Once recognized on stained sections they are 
readily made out in fresh ones. The gold method I employed was 
the following. Fresh articular ends of bones were placed for twenty 
minutes in a 0°5 per cent. auric chloride solution. They were then 
allowed to remain all night in a 0-02 per cent. solution, and in the 
morning were removed and exposed to the light in the dry way all 
day. In the evening, horizontal sections were made and examined. 
I may add that, after taking every possible precaution to avoid fallacy 
in silver preparations, I observed figures very similar to those 
represented by Tillmanns, which he deems artificial, of which more © 
anon.” 
The Sporules of Seaweeds the cause of Colour in Oysters.—Mz. F. 
Buckland states, in a late number of ‘Land and Water, that the 
green-bearded oysters which are found not far from Southend, 
Essex, owe their green colour not to any mineral pigment. This 
peculiar green is imparted to them by the sporules of the seaweed 
called “crow-silk,” which grows abundantly in the Roach River. 
Dr. Letheby’s analysis has pronounced this pigment to be purely 
vegetable, without the slightest trace of copper or other mineral. 
Mr. Buckland considers that this vegetable pigment imparts a peculiar 
taste and agreeable flavour to the meat of these plump little oysters. 
The Anatomy of Moths.—In a work which is entitled ‘A Mono- 
graph of the Phalenide or Geometrid Moths of the United States,’ 
