22 6 THE MICROSCOPE. 



on the stained ground very clearly. Phloxine is the more beautiful 

 and pleasant color to work with. Both are soluble in water or spirit, 

 and weak solutions stain quickly. If sections are placed in weak 

 solutions for several hours, the nuclei often take on the stain: Both 

 these anilines are darkish red powders by reflected light, phloxine 

 having a faint purple-crimson color, and the color of the solutions 

 in a test tube will vary with the strength. Murexide is a brownish- 

 red powder, very slightly soluble in cold water, not soluble in spirit, 

 but readily so in boiling water. On cooling and filtering, sections 

 are immersed for five or ten minutes, when it will be found to give a 

 good ground-stain for double-dyeing. With acetate of zinc it gives 

 a yellow stain. 



Maroon, phosphine, cerise and mauve are all useful and unused 

 colors, phosphine yielding a good ground-stain of a rich golden yel- 

 low, available with advantage for double-staining. The rest re- 

 semble most of the 6ther anilines in picking out the nuclei, but they 

 also stain the other structures. Dilute aqueous or alcoholic solu- 

 tions stain rapidly, and may be fixed by the process described above, 

 though phosphine holds very well of itself. 



Induline, which is also a new aniline color, is a dark powder, 

 giving a pale bluish-purple stain. If used after carmine or picro- 

 carmine, the cell-body and intercellular substance will be preferred 

 by the induline, and the nuclei and connective fibres by the other 

 colors. It dissolves in warm water or dilute alcohol. Maroon, 

 phosphine and cerise are new to histology. — Journal of ' the Postal 

 Microscopical Society. 



Preparing Insects and Spiders. — Mr. S. Green formerly 

 found great difficulty in arranging insects and spiders in proper 

 position. Legs would double up and wings would not remain ex- 

 panded. It is only very recently that he has overcome the difficulty, 

 and as the method may also be novel to other amateur mounters, he 

 describes it in full. 



"On capturing an insect, consign it at once to the poison bottle 

 if convenient, and there let it remain until it is quite dead. Do not 

 let it lie in the bottle for longer than half an hour. Ten minutes is 

 generally sufficient. The action of the cyanide of potash would in a 

 few hours injure materially the muscular structure of the insect, and 

 spoil it as a microscopical object. You should remove the insect 



