282 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
from which it derives its name. Dr. Hunt stated that on examining 
portions of the Protococcus nivalis under the micro-spectroscope he had 
found that its colouring matter entirely blotted out the violet end of 
the spectrum, leaving the red, yellow, and orange untouched. 
Dr. J. H. McQuillen showed a specimen of muscular fibre from the 
sheep, which, after the simple method of preparation of allowing it to 
remain between two of his own teeth for five hours, he had placed in 
glycerine and teased out with mounted needles, thus obtaining a mag- 
nificent view of the ultimate fibrillfe of the muscle. 
Dr. J. G. Eichardson exhibited a fine specimen of a vertical section 
from the mucous membrane of the tongue of a calf, mounted in balsam, 
which at his urgent request had been loaned to him from the Army 
Medical Museum. He desired to call the attention of members to the 
fact that each individual epithelial cell, throughout almost the whole 
thickness of the membrane, displayed its outline and nucleus with 
perfect distinctness, and that therefore the statement made when 
balsam preparations were last under discussion, that they showed 
hardly anything, -was inaccurate. 
Dr. J. G. Hunt exhibited a similar specimen of his own mounted 
in glycerine, and remarked that when thus prepared the epithelial 
cells were displayed, not shrunken, but of their full size, and that those 
important elements, the connective-tissue fibres, were clearly visible, 
instead of being lost to view as in the balsam preparation. 
Dr. Eichardson observed that even if the fresh glycerine prepara- 
tions exhibited these delicate fibres more plainly, yet the specimen 
preserved in balsam displayed the muscular-fibre cells with far greater 
distinctness, and the absolute permanence of objects mounted by the 
balsam method constituted one of its most important recommendations. 
Dr. H. C. Wood, jun., stated that the glycerine preparation ap- 
peared to be superior to that mounted in balsam, and moved that 
in order to settle this question, about which there had been so much 
dispute, these specimens should be referred to a committee composed 
of Drs. J. H. McQuillen and James Tyson, for examination and report. 
Dr. J. G. Hunt exhibited an exquisite specimen of the liver of a 
common fly, showing with remarkable clearness the arrangement of 
the hepatic cells and ducts, and stated that he proposed mounting a 
series of preparations displaying the structure of the liver from its 
simplest form in the Articulata up to its most complex arrangement in 
the human organism. 
Erratum. 
In the description of the woodcut Fig. 5, at p. 207 of this volume, the words 
“ Lobelia” and “Cineraria” have been transposed and placed opposite the wrong 
spectra. 
