THE MICROSCOPE. 77 
“Promethean, a small glass tube containing concentrated 
sulphuric acid, surrounded with an inflammable mixture.” 
“ Prussic, in chemistry, noting a very poisonous acid, called 
hydro cyanic, and forming the coloring matter of prussian blue.” 
“Tincture, the volatile part of a substance separated by a 
menstruum.” 
The biologists are especially favored in this collection, for 
not only are the descriptive terms they employ defined, but 
their genera and families are chaarcterized, but not always cor- 
rectly. Thus the Aigeridee are “lepidopterous insects; the 
hornets”; Alasmodon is a species of the genus Unio; the prin- 
cipal species of Argonauta “is the Argo; the nautilus”; Bucci- 
num is made a genus of bivalved mollusca; the “ Colubride, a 
numerous family of poisonous serpents”; and the “scorpion an 
insect or small reptile having in its tail a venomous sting”; 
while Brachionus is “a genus of rotiferous Infusoria of which 
there are several genera.” 
“ Alitrunk (Lat. ala, a wing, and trunk), in entomology the 
hinder segment of the body of an insect, with which the legs 
are connected.” 
“Draco . . . Inentomology, thename of an insect found 
in India and Africa, and distinguished from the Lizard tribe 
merely by having a broad lateral membrane, strengthened by 
radii or bony processes. It lives among trees, and is able, by 
means of the membrane, to spring from tree to tree.” The ques- 
tion at once arises, can this Draco be the same as the Echidna, 
which is defined as ‘a genus of spring quadruped ” ? 
“‘ Cirripeds, a class of Mollusca, the animals of which are 
furnished with a mantle and testaceous juices.” 
‘“* Mesentery, in anatomy, a membrane by which the intes- 
tines are attached to the vertebre.” 
** Aleyoneze, a group of polypiferous Acrita, more nearly al- 
lied to animal life than the sponges; the Alcyonium, a genus of 
sponges, is the type—Alcyonella is a fresh-water specimen.” 
“Ovary, in anatomy, an organ containing the female ova, 
or in which they are impregnated.” 
The following definitions form a fitting conclusion to these 
few extracts. Word for word the writer doubts if their equal 
