The Microscope. 377 



specimen prepared as described in the beginning of this paper. It is 

 the simplest form of connective tissue, and is composed of a struc- 

 tureless jelly-like basement substance, in which are embedded a num- 

 ber of rather large irregular or spindle-shaped cells. These cells are 

 nucleated and are joined to each other by means of their processes, 

 thus forming distinct networks. 



Note. — As this tissue is the progenitor of fibrous connective 

 tissue, into which it begins to change at an early period, it is best to 

 study it in a cord taken as early as the third month of gestation. 

 Even then a few delicate fibrils will be found in the basement sub- 

 stance, especially in the neighborhood of the cells, which also show 

 faint markings preceding more or less complete fibrillation. 



In the mature cord the fibrous tissue has become so abundant 

 as to conceal in many places the identity of the gelatinous substance. 



EDITORIAL. 



THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MICROSCOPISTS AND THE 

 WORKING SESSION. 



A MOST superficial comparison of the last volume of transactions 

 of the American Society of Microscopists with any of the 

 preceding publications issued by that body, cannot fail to disclose 

 the great advance made in scientific investigations and methods by 

 its members. The masterly presidential address by Prof. Wm. A. 

 Rogers, which alone covers the first one hundred and twenty-five 

 pages of the proceedings, is a scientific benediction upon all that fol- 

 lows, and a guarantee that succeeding pages are at least worthy to 

 bear it company. A glance through the various pages will convince 

 any one that the Society is doing a good and valuable work in the 

 field of science, and that to-day it well deserves the position which it 

 has so fairly won for itself among the leading scientific bodies of the 

 world. With such testimony before us as is contained in this volume, 

 it cannot be denied that the A. S. M. is fulfilling the duty which it 

 imposed upon itself some eleven years ago on its natal day in 

 Indianapolis. The Society has succeeded far beyond the most san- 

 guine expectations, even of its founders; and yet, if we probe below 

 this encircling crust of scientific results, we reach a point which indi- 

 cates that in the perfect fulfilment of its original programme, the 

 Society is greviously lapsing year by year. In the preliminary Bv- 

 Laws submitted for the Society's action at Indianapolis, we read in 



