■ 134 PROaRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE, 



accoimt given in ' Bonplandia ' (186'2, pp. 63), would agi'cc with M. 

 OErsted. " It is impossible not to perceive the similitude between the 

 phenomena seen by M. (Ersted and those I have described in Peziza 

 confluens." 



Mode of preparing the Tympanic Membrane. — The method of 

 preparation of the tympanic membrane which has been found most 

 effectual by Dr. M. Watson is the following : — The membrane is re- 

 moved as soon after death as possible, and steeped for a few seconds 

 in concentrated acetic acid. It is then placed in a solution of chloride 

 of gold (0*5 per cent.), which should be kept at a temperature some- 

 what above that of the blood for half an hour, after which the 

 membrane should be placed for twenty-four hoiu-s in glycerine, or in 

 water slightly acidulated with acetic acid, and exposed to the light 

 till it assumes a delicate purple colom-. By this means, the loops and 

 the nerves accompanying them are rendered visible. The specimen 

 may be preserved in glycerine acidulated with acetic acid. 



A Fungus Parasitic on the Mouse. — At the meeting of the Academy 

 of Natural Science of Philadelphia (April 22nd), Professor Leidy 

 exhibited a mouse with several whitish masses adherent to the ears, 

 side of the face, and nose. The mouse had been caught in the 

 children's department of Blockley Hospital. The white matter 

 examined beneath the microscope proved to be composed of sporular 

 bodies, single, double, or in short chains of a dozen or more. They 

 measure about the -j^^q- of a line in diameter. The fungus is a 

 Torula or Oidium, and resembles that found in Aptha. Perhaps the 

 disease in the mouse is the result of feeding upon articles imbued with 

 adherent portions of apthous matter from the mouths of children. 



Cancer in the Neighhourhood of the True Shin. — Dr. Ogston says of 

 this, that when it occurs on the prepuce, the lips, the face, the hands, 

 &c., one of the earliest expressions of the disease is a recognizable 

 amount of hypertrophy of the epidermis over the tumour, and a 

 binding down of this structure, so that it cannot be moved backwards 

 and forwards over it. This is equally true whether the cancerous 

 proliferation of epithelium progresses more superficially on and 

 between the papillae of the skin, so as to give rise to an elevated 

 epithelioma, or extends among the subcutaneous tissue or deeper parts, 

 so as to form a cancerous nodule of the ordinary deep description ; in 

 both classes of cases, the skin is bound down to the tumour from the 

 very commencement, and generally presents an alteration of appear- 

 ance visible to the naked eye of a close observer. The cuticle appears 

 rough and scaly, and the true skin beneath shows through it with a 

 purplish red tinge, so that the portion affected offers a contrast to that 

 in its vicinity — not very prominent, it is true, but unmistakable on 

 close observation. The hairs are sometimes stunted and broken, the 

 hair-follicles hypertrophied, and the sweat-ducts present a thickening 

 of their eiiithelial lining. — Edinburgh Medical Journal. 



Subepithelial Endothelium of the Mticous 3Tembranes. — Dr. E. Klein 

 says in the ' Medical Eecord,' that M. Debove asserts that the mucous 



