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 NEW BOOKS, WITH SHOET NOTICES. 



The Lens: a Quarterly Journal of Microscopy and the Allied 

 Natural Sciences, with the Transactions of the State Microscopical 

 Society of Illinois. Edited by S. A. Briggs. Chicago, U.S.A. 1872. 

 — Oiu' readers were made aware of the existence of this journal 

 through several quotations which we made from it in a late number. 

 We have now, in a few words, the pleasure of introducing it to 

 them as a valuable and carefully -edited report, not only of the 

 Society whose proceedings it is made the medium of communicating 

 to the scientific world, but of the whole trans- Atlantic progress which 

 is being made in the various branches of science connected with the 

 microscope. Its first number promises well, for a moment's glance 

 shows that its editor understands his business, and does not mean to 

 allow any one department to get a too prominent position at the 

 expense of any other. We therefore find that he has taken care to 

 have every subject well represented, and we must, in the first instance, 

 ackuovvledge the compliment he has paid us of selecting as his sole 

 illustrated article, a jjaper which originally appeared in these pages, 

 from the pen of Mr. M. Johnson, M.R.C.S. But, besides this, there 

 are several able articles, more especially the " Conspectus of the 

 Families and Genera of the Diatomaccfe," by Professor H. L. Smith ; 

 " The Preparation of Soft Tissues," by Dr. Danforth ; " Microscopical 

 Memoranda," by Col. Dr. Woodward ; and " A New Method of 

 lllmninating Opaque Objects imder High Powers," by Dr. H. A. John- 

 son. Altogether, we are well pleased with the new Chicago venture, 

 and we heartily wish it every success it so well and so thoroughly 

 merits. 



De la Microcythemie, par MM. Vanlair et Masius, Professeurs a 

 rUniversite de Liege. Bruxelles. Henri Manceaux. 1871. — We 

 call attention to this work, not because we have any faith in the con- 

 clusion at which the authors have arrived, but because the theory 

 they urge is a most important one if proved, and in order that those 

 who have given attention to the subject may consider this theory. 

 The writers are men very well qualified to make observations in 

 microscoi)y and to write upon them ; but we fancy in the present 

 instance they are entirely mistaken, and that therefore their view is 

 absolutely a false one. They give the term raicrocyte to a blood cor- 

 puscle which aj)pears to diifer somewhat from the ordinary ones, and, 

 they term the condition one of mycrocythemia whenever the blood 

 presents a considerable number of those microcytes. We fancy the 

 authors have rushed rather hastily to a hypothesis, for we can assure 

 them, from our own experience, that there is hardly a human being 

 in existence who does not jDresent less or more of the characters they 

 associate with mycrocythemia. At least, the writer's own observations, 

 and they have been considerable, have led him to that conclusion. 

 However, MM. Vanlair and Masius hold quite a difterent opinion, and 

 they have expressed it very fully and supported it somewhat by 



