128 PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 



work is very good, and deserves the attention of microscopists. With 

 regai'd to the sepals of this order he says that their lower or outer 

 surface are covered by an ej^idermis, the cells of which are somewhat 

 cuhoidal, but sinuous in outline above, and thickened on their upjier 

 wall. They are interrupted here and there by oval stomata, bounded 

 by two sausage-shaped guard cells containing chlorophyll, a substance 

 not met with in most of the other epidermal cells. The inner or 

 upper epiderm of the sej)als is of a similar character, and is likewise 

 perforated by stomata. Some of these stomata are of an imperfect 

 character, in that the separation into two guard cells does ncjt take 

 place. The form of the aperture remains unaffected ; but it is 

 bounded by a single cell instead of by two. According to Von Mohl, 

 the stomata originate from the subdivision of a single cell, each of 

 the subdivisions becoming a guard cell. In the imperfect stoma 

 above described there has been arrest of development, as it were, and 

 the sphincter of the stoma is formed of one cell instead of by a pair. 

 Charles Morren,* who was the first to notice this condition of the 

 stomata, mentions the existence in Passlflora quadrangularis of still 

 more imperfect stomata on the calyx, consisting merely of one semi-lunar 

 guard cell, as if the fellow cell were suppressed. Morren states that 

 he saw, in one case, an aperture, as of an ordinary stoma, between the 

 side of this solitary sphincter cell and the adjoining epidermal cell. 

 He has not himself seen these half stomata, prob:ibly because his 

 observations have not been sufficiently extended. Beneath the outer 

 epidermis are three or four rows of spheroidal cells containing chloro- 

 phyll. Within this (in P. alata) there is a quantity of loose spongy 

 cellular tissue, consisting of irregularly branching cells, between 

 whose subdivisions are left large spaces or lacunce. These cells 

 contain little or no chlorophyll. Traversing this tissue are numerous 

 bundles of slender spiral vessels. The inner epidermis consists of 

 flattened polygonal cells with oval stomata. f 



The Microscope in the Diagnosis of Worms. — In the ' Birmingham 

 Medical Review,' the first number of which has just appeared, there is 

 an account of the use of the microscope for ikhe above purpose by 

 M. Bouchut, of Paris. M. Bouchut admits that we owe it originally to 

 M. Davaine. The following brief account is taken from the ' Bulletin 

 de Therapeutique ' : — '* I have prepared for the microscope a small 

 portion of excrement, in order that you may see how the diagnosis 

 may be made, and that you may observe the form of the eggs of the 

 lumbricus. (?) In the preparation you can see the eggs, oval in shape, 

 with scolloped borders like a raspberry, and containing an inner 

 sphere, in which are included some molecular granulations. The 

 presence of these eggs in the faeces gives certainty to the diagnosis of 

 the existence of worms in the intestines, and removes all hesitation 

 about the employment of vermifuges." 



TJie Microscopy of Tuhrrciilosis. — Dr. C. F. Rodenstein has a long 

 paper on this subject in the ' New York Medical Journal ' for Decem- 



* 'Dodonsea,' Part ii., p. 18. 



t See also ' Transactions of Linnean Society,' vol. xxvii. 



