The Microscope. 



309 



yet the white-ziac or the asphalt ] answers well. In iising. the wax 

 ring, the heat must be very cautiously ^applied, so as barely to melt 

 it, following gently around with a very small flame. If bubbles of 

 air are entangled under the ring, touch them with a heated needle 

 point just before the wax cools. 



When the asphalt, white-zinc or wax ring is solid, apply a 

 good coat of shellac dissolved in alcohol. Slides thus protected keep 

 perfectly well. After the ring is firmly set, any metallic stains 

 remaining on the cover may be removed by a bit of tissue paper 

 moistened with hydrochloric acid. H. L. S. 



Staining the Bacillus of Glanders. — The bacilli are best 

 stained with a concentrated alkaline solution of methylene-blue. 

 For staining the bacilli in sections of tissue containing them, 

 Loffler recommends that they ])e immersed in the above-mentioned 

 solution for 12 to '24 hours, and then carefully treated with 

 very dilute acetic acid, until the sections have been decolorized 

 sufficiently to bring the bacilli into'view. After this treatment they 

 should be washed out in alcohol, and immersed in oil of cedar, 

 which does not dissolve out the aniline colors, and is therefore to 

 be preferred to oil of cloves in all preparations in which these colors 

 are used for staining bacteria. — Sternberg in Med. News. 



ABSTRACTS. 



MORPHOLOGY OF BEANS. 



Dr. Ephriam Cutter in the Albany Medical Annals : Taking 

 the bean botanically, it is the seed of the phaseolus species of the 



Fig. I. 



leguminous family. The seed is made of the germ and two lobes, 

 called cotyledons, which are seed-leaves loaded with starch to serve 

 as food for the germ and for animals. 



