iS sep a PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 333 
superfluous moisture was removed with blotting-paper. Canada balsam 
was then boiled, both on a glass slide and a covering glass. When 
the balsam was nearly cold, the bone was arranged on the slide, and 
the covering glass laid on; the whole was now warmed, and the glass 
cover pressed down. By this means the structure of the bone was 
admirably shown. A hot knife having been run round the edge of the 
covering glass, the superfluous balsam could now be easily cleaned off 
in cold water. 
From the cutting the slice of bone until the slide was labelled and 
ready for the cabinet, less than half an hour had elapsed—a very great 
advantage, to those who wished to study osseous structure, over the 
ordinary methods of preparing sections. 
Thin sections of wood, cut with a razor instead of a chisel, shells 
of nuts, and bone, were handed round as illustrations. 
It was announced that the next microscopical meeting would be on 
October 27th ; the subject—“ Dlumination.” 
October 13th. Ordinary meeting.—Mr. T. H. Hennah, Vice-Pre- 
sident, in the chair. 
The Secretaries of the Quekett Microscopical Club, the Lewes 
Natural History Society, and the Maidstone and Mid-Kent Natural 
History Society, were elected Honorary Members of the Society. 
Dr. Badcock read a paper “On the Gulf Stream,” in which the 
peculiar phenomena, nature of its current, possible cause of its origin, 
with an account of some of the forms of life met with in the Gulf 
Stream, were described and discussed. 
Reapinc Microscopicat Socrety.* 
October 18th, 1870.—After the usual business incidental to the 
opening of a fresh session, Captain Lang, the President, read a very 
practical and useful paper “ On Selecting and Mounting Diatoms,” in 
which he urged the importance and desirability of making separate 
mounts of the species of diatoms found in any particular locality. He 
described Captain Haigh’s method of making cells, &c., and gave full 
particulars of his own and Mr. Tatem’s methods of picking out and 
mounting selected specimens, as well as of the various media and 
cements employed. Specimens of slides and mounts in their various 
stages were shown as illustrations. 
Captain Lang also brought before the notice of the meeting Mr. 
Baker’s form of dissecting compound microscope with erecting eye- 
piece prism, and also Gundlach’s 1th, ;1,th, and ;,th object-g glasses. 
Mr. Tatem exhibited balsam mounts of minute Acari (obtained 
from a dead flea of the ferret) having four legs only. These are shown 
to be immature forms; two pairs of well-developed posterior legs, 
ready for evolution at an approaching moult, being clearly discernible, 
determining the fact that some Acari are excluded from the eg ge with 
but four legs, subsequently acquiring the normal eight mm ay progress 
of growth. 
* Report supplied by Mr. V. J. Austin, 
