PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 179 



like those of the lungs. 2. The circular fibrous tracts of the smaller 

 bronchi send loop-like processes into the mouths of the infundibula, 

 which penetrate to the fundus of the same. At from two to four 

 points, tracts of smooth muscular fibres surround the infundibula in 

 an annular form ; these muscular rings lie mostly in the inwardly- 

 directed portions of the alveolar septa. 3. All these muscles are 

 in the so-called brown consolidation of the lung, in a condition of 

 hyperplasia ; those who have seen them in morbid specimens will be 

 able to recognize them, though they are very delicate, in normal lungs. 



Nemosoma elongata. — Mr. Joseph Sidebotham, F.E.A.S., read a paper 

 on this species at a recent meeting of the Manchester Phil. Society. 

 The author having discovered a considerable number of specimens of . 

 this very rare species under bark of elm, at Beeston, Notts, in No- 

 vember last, and having the opportunity, carefully observed its habits, 

 of which he gave a detailed account, illustrated by specimens and by 

 portions of bark and diagrams ; showing also specimens and drawings 

 of Hylesinus vittatus, on which it is parasitic. 



The Diatom Hoax. — Our readers may remember our referring to 

 an article some timo ago, in which the most monstrous microscopic 

 absurdities were broached. We certainly did not consider its 

 matter to be at all amusing. However, the ' American Naturalist' 

 of February considers that it was a hoax. Speaking of it, it says, 

 many readers have enjoyed, in a late medical journal, the ingenious 

 essay on test-objects, in which the new immersion one-seventieth of 

 191°, wet with fluoric acid and illuminated by a new eccentric paral- 

 lelepiped with fluorescent rays exclusively, is represented as revealing 

 that the structure of Pleurosigma angulatum is like the Nicholson 

 pavement ; and that a new diatom, fortunately rare, has beads more 

 than one hundred and forty-seven millions to the inch, which are 

 invisible by all other lenses and to all other observers. They will be 

 further amused by learning from the ' Boston Journal of Chemistry ' 

 that some foreign medical journals have seriously reviewed this bur- 

 lesque and discovered it to be a hoax. 



Absorption of Insoluble flatter by Animal Membranes, — This subject, 

 which cannot be worked out without the help of the microscope, has 

 lately had a series of experiments made upon it by Dr. Auspitz, of 

 Vienna, who has arrived at the following conclusions on the subject : — 



1. That, in mammals, insoluble matter (starch-flour granules), start- 

 ing from the peritoneum and subcutaneous tissue, is able to reach the 

 lungs, and through these organs to enter the general circulation. 



2. That these granules, in order to go over into the veins, pass through 

 the lymphatic system. (That they are taken up exclusively in this 

 way, is not as yet proved.) 3. That the epidermis always presents a 

 considerable, though only relative and not absolute, obstruction to the 

 absorption from the integumentary surface. 4. That the absorption 

 is essentially promoted by the mediation of fat, which goes over into 

 the circulation in the same manner as starch-flour, though even more 

 easily. Finally, the supposition may be ofi"ered, even if the direct 



VOL. VII. O 



