332 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. ea, 
Mr. Wonfor exhibited dwarf specimens, with one exception caught, 
of several butterflies—these showed that there were dwarfs in Nature 
as well as those produced by rearing artificially; and many blue 
varieties of the females of three species of the blue butterfly. 
Mr. Merrifield stated that, as a rule, bred specimens were smaller 
than caught ones. 
Messrs. Howell and Wonfor exhibited specimens of Websterite, 
Allophane, Selenite, and various other peculiar minerals, obtained in 
excavations for the main drainage works in Vernon Terrace and Clifton 
Hill. 
Mr. Ardley exhibited jet, ammonites, belemnites, and impressions 
of leaves, obtained by him at Whitby. 
Dr. Badcock exhibited seaweed (Sargassum vulgare), obtained by 
him in the Gulf Stream in 1864. 
Mr. C. P. Smith exhibited specimens of Sargassum bacciferum, 
washed ashore on the west coast of Ireland. 
Mr. Wonfor exhibited amber, containing a four-winged fly and dif- 
ferent ores of copper, from the Burra-Burra Mine, Australia. 
September 22nd. Microscopical meeting. Mr. T. H. Hennah, 
Vice-President, in the chair.—* On Sections and Section Cutting.” 
Dr. Hallifax gave practical instruction in his method of making 
sections of animal and vegetable tissues. Starting with a Beck's 
section-cutting instrument, intended especially for making wood sec- 
tions, he found the accurate workmanship and delicate screw enabled 
him to cut sections ;,)5,th of an inch thick. 
For soft substances, with the gun-metal blocks supplied with the 
instrument and a strip of paper, he contrived to form a cell, in which 
melted wax was poured; in this the object to be operated on, pre- 
viously coated with gum and dried, was arranged. By using a razor 
instead of the chisel, he was now able to make very thin sections, the 
graduated screw enabling him to determine their thickness. On 
floating the sections in water the coating of gum dissolved, and cleared 
them of the surrounding wax. 
By such a method he had made sections of brain, spinal chord, 
animal and vegetable tissues, seeds, leaves, insects, &c.; specimens of 
which, and of the retina of the eye of a sheep, were handed round as 
illustrations. 
Mr. Hennah then showed how, with the same instrument, sections 
of wood or the stems of plants could be made by fixing them in the 
gun-metal blocks with paraffine wax before cutting. 
Mr. Wonfor illustrated the making of sections of harder substances, 
such as the stones of the peach or the coquilla nut. A thin slice was 
first cut with a fine saw, ground on a coarse stone, and finished on a 
water-of-Ayr stone with water. 
He then described and performed a process recently devised by 
Dr. Ormerod, of Brighton, for making and mounting sections of bone. 
A thin slice was cut with a fine saw; this was roughly ground on a 
coarse stone, and finished with a piece of flat pumice-stone on a plate 
of ground glass, with water. After well washing the section, only the 
