50 MICROSCOPY. 
to the pages of this magazine. It only remains to mention that the 
entrance fee is 2s. 6d., and theannual subscription 10s. 
Mr. T. Boutron’s Acrncy for the Distribution of Living Organisms 
amongst Microscopists is, we are glad to find, being widely appreciated 
and made use of. He has already as subscribers of one guinea for 
twenty-six tubes, to be supplied in the course of six months, usually one 
per week, or more rapidly if desired, several Microscopical Societies, 
Science Schools, and many leading microscopists in all parts of the 
United Kingdom. We have glanced at the list of objects sent out by him 
during the past six weeks, and we find amongst them larvae of the Marine 
Polyzoon described at page 26, Raphidiophrys pallida, Epistylis grandis, 
Euglena viridis, Chilodon cucullulus (?), Gicistes crystallinus, Floscularia 
cornuta, Trout spawn, Stephanoceros Hichhornii, Amoeba, Nitella trans- 
lucens in fructification, Volvox globator, many kinds of Rotifers, &c., of 
some of which he has also been able to distribute good illustrations and 
descriptions through the kindness of Professor E. Ray Lankester, Mr. 
Saville W. Kent, and Mr. H. E. Forrest. We can from personal 
experience speak of the satisfactory manner in which Mr. Bolton sends 
out his specimens, and can recommend anyone desiring useful occupation 
for his microscope to make use of Mr. Bolton’s services. His address 
is 17, Ann Street, Birmingham. 
METEOROLOGY OF THE MIDLANDS. 
THE WEATHER OF DECEMBER, 1878. 
BY W. JEROME HARRISON, F.G.S. 
December commenced with five or six days of unsettled weather, 
but on the 7th cold weather set in and continued to the 28th. The 
severity of the cold during this period was greater than in any year since 
1860. Our lowest temperature recorded was at Coston Rectory, near 
Melton Mowbray, (Rev. A. M. Rendell,) 2° below zero, indicated by two 
registering minimum thermometers,and at Stoney Middleton a temperature 
of —1° wasindicated. This was on Christmas Eve. Of the three weeks’ 
frost the Rev. J. Brooke (Shifnal) writes ‘‘ By far the coldest December 
for at least forty-four years;” the Rev. J. M. Mello, (Chesterfield,) ‘It 
is forty-one years since such severe weather set in so early, and such a 
low temperature as 5° (on the 25th) has not been known since 1860 in 
this district ;’ Mr. H. H. Bellamy, (Oxford,) ‘‘The mean temperature 
of December was lower than of any month since 1860, except December, 
1874, which was about the same.” Ice on still water attained from 6in. 
to Tin. in thickness. “The Trent was frozen over, and at Nottingham, on 
Christmas Day, hundreds of people were skating on it” (Mr. H. F. 
Johnson.) From the 11th to the 15th the ‘‘ ragged rime” on the trees 
presented a beautiful appearance, the ice-needles being an inch in length, 
and varying with the direction of the wind, as Mr. Mott has so well 
pointed out (‘‘ Midland Naturalist,” Vol. IL, p. 22.) <A ‘silver thaw” 
set in on the 26th, rain falling and freezing on the roads, which became 
a sheet of ice. Mr. Markham (Pitsford) says, ‘‘The people here were 
able to skate from Northampton to Pitsford and back by Brampton, a 
distance of ten miles on the road.” This was another instance of the 
fact that atmospheric changes first set in in the higher regions of the 
atmosphere, and shows the importance of having meteorological stations 
on the highest points in any country. Rainfall was about an average. 
It consisted largely of snow, which fell heavily on the 18th and 2Ist. 
The barometer was low and unsteady. Northerly and westerly winds 
prevailed, but there was a marked absence of tempestuous weather. 
a 
