189G THE MICROSCOPE. 119 



Odontophores and their Preparation. 



By ARTHUR M. EDWARDS, M. D., 



XEWAKK, N. J. 



I do not find anything about odontopliores and their 

 preparation in the journals devoted to mircroscopy, or at 

 least very little, and as I have devised a method, now 

 new, perhaps, for their preparation which I will detail it 

 here. 



On the lOtli of June, 1870, 1 captured a living specimen 

 of Helix memoralis, a European species of snail, on a 

 sidewalk in New York City. The fact was strange, as 

 it wa^ a stranger in the land although common in Eu- 

 rope. How it could he introduced could not he ascer- 

 tained, but if it could thus get loose, many might also, 

 and the species become common in this country. This led 

 me to detail my process of preparation at the next meet- 

 ing of the Lyceum of National History and as the pro- 

 cess is easy to work and specimens are very nice, I wish 

 to give it now. 



"There is however something about odontophores and 

 the head of patates of cephalophorus molluscs in Car- 

 penter's treatise on the microscope, and he says about the 

 preparation about this. The preparation of these palates 

 for the microscope can, of course he only accomplished by 

 carefully dissecting them out from their attachment 

 within the head; and it will be also necessary to remove 

 the membrane that forms the sheath of the tube, when 

 this is thick enough to interfere with its transparence. 

 The tube itself should be slit up with a pair of fine 

 scissors through its entire length, and should he so 

 opened out that its expanded surface may be a continua- 

 tion of that which forms the floor at the mouth. The 

 mode of mounting it will depend upon the manner in 

 which it is viewed. For the ordinary purposes of mi- 

 croscopic examination no method is so good as mounting 



