196 THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS. 
Titles and abstracts of papers should be sent as soon as prac- 
ticable to the secretary, Professor D. S. Kellicott, Ph.D., 119, 
Fourteenth-street, Buffalo, New York; and all who intend to be 
present or to join the society are requested also to notify him or 
the local committee at Rochester.” 
J; D. Cox, Presniai. 
THE PREPARATION AND MOUNTING OF 
FORAMINIFERA WITH DESCRIPTION OF A 
NEW SLIDE FOR OPAQUE, OBJECIsS: 
By F. M. Hamuin, M.D., Auburn, N. Y. 
EARLY all of the Foraminifera are in condition to mount as 
found, but the principal difficulty is to obtain them in sufficient 
quantities, for mounting, free from the sand and other materials 
with which they are gathered. If in sand which is silicious, they 
may be quite easily separated by drying the whole mass thoroughly, 
and then pouring on water. The sand sinks readily, but the shells 
being filled with air float upon the surface of the water and may be 
skimmed off ; or a small quantity of the sand may be placed ina 
watch glass and subjected to a whirling, shaking motion when the 
shells will work out on the top and may be picked off. 
These plans do very well for the coarse forms, but for the finest, 
and for calcareous sands, such as the famed Bermuda sand, there 
is no plan so satisfactory as to search through the material with 
the microscope. 
To save time and labour I separate the sand into grades by pas- 
sing it through sieves of different degrees of fineness. Three grades 
are sufficient, one coarse, medium and fine. ‘The shells from the 
last will exercise the skill nearly as much as diatoms. Having sifted 
the sand I examine it on a specially devised slide, made as follows: 
A piece of pasteboard the size of an ordinary slide has a long slit 
cut in it and is then fastened to a glass slide. The width of this 
slit is of importance, and is determined thus,—take a low power 
objective, say a three or four inch, which affords just sufficient 
power to see the shells well, and measure the width of its field. 
Make the slit, or opening in the pasteboard just twice this distance. 
The slide being ready, a little pinch of sand is put on the glass and 
a slight shake spreads it out in a single layer confined by the paste- 
board. It is then placed under the microscope and moving it so 
that the edge of the pasteboard is just visible, pass up on one side 
and down the other, and every particle of the sand is brought into 
