78 THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS. 
mounts can be made; and every one who tries it will be a con- 
vert to the new method of mounting without pressure. 
We have used carbolic acid instead of alcohol in mounting 
stained sections of wood, with excellent results, and it is much 
cheaper than alcohol. — American Monthly Microscopical Journal. 
BRITISH MARINE. POLYZGA; 
By A. S. Pennincton, F.R.M.S. 
Abstract of a paper read before the Bolton Microscopical Society, 
January 15th, 1883. 
MONGST the varied objects of the Microscopists’ study are 
two groups of organisms, formerly associated together, and 
which resemble each other in the beauty of their external structure, 
and, to some considerable extent also, in apparent organisation. 
The components of each group, for the most part, inhabit curiously 
wrought cells, though in the one group the cell is merely the 
habitation, whereas in the other group it is part of the animal 
itself. Each group also is made up of animals which are notice- 
able for the crown of tentacles encircling the mouth, though the 
purposes of these crowns are different. The one group, the 
Hydrozoa, is a branch of the low-formed ccelenterate or hollow- 
bodied animals ; whereas the other group, with which we are more 
directly concerned, the Polyzoa, is a subdivision of the much 
higher grade the Mollusca. Both these groups were formerly 
united as Zoophytes, or animal-like plants; and, when we look at 
these organisms by the naked eye, we are not at all surprised to 
find that early observers were mistaken as to their real nature, and 
were inclined to consider them to be really forms of plant life. It 
will be needless here to detail the long conflict of opinion which 
prevailed about the middle of the eighteenth century as to the 
nature of the Polyzoa and other Zoophytes. Their animal nature 
was ultimately settled in a peculiar way, which shows us that 
important facts are often found out in an unexpected manner. 
John Ellis, a London merchant, who occupied his leisure hours 
with the study of natural history, published in 1754 a communica- 
tion to the Royal Society, in which he described and carefully 
named and figured a very large number of the Zoophytes, and very 
distinctly claimed for them the nature of animals. His book 
remains to the present a very valuable authority upon the subject ; 
and the popular names, which he gave to the different organisms, 
remain to this day as their only designations. Some of these 
