132 Chronicles of Science. [Jan., 
pipette, a drop being placed upon the drilled hole to remove the 
air. The object being put on the top of the slide and wetted, is 
then to be covered with a large square of thin glass, which covers 
the drilled hole, and is prevented from slipping by a small strip 
cemented as a ledge under it. The slide can now be placed 
upright, or in any position, and no water can escape. As the water 
evaporates from under the cover, more is supplied through the 
hole, and from time to time an air bubble enters at the removed 
corner of the upper plate, so that a constant circulation is kept up. 
The cell needs replenishing only about once in three days, and 
this may be done without disturbing the object. It is in fact only 
a new application of the old principle of the bird fountain. 
The science of Zoology has sustained great losses of late in 
the death of three emiment conchologists. The first of these was 
the well-known traveller and collector, Mr. Hugh Cuming, who had 
devoted many years to the investigation of the Natural History of 
South America and the Eastern Archipelago, where he gathered 
the richest collection ever brought home by a single traveller, 
which has rendered his cabmet of shells the most remarkable in 
Europe. We understand this collection has been offered to the 
British Museum for a sum of money much beneath its value, and 
has been accepted. The second conchologist whose loss we have to 
deplore, is Mr. 8. P. Woodward, the author of the best manual of 
conchology we have. Mr. Woodward was engaged in the British 
Museum, and his knowledge of shells was most extensive. He had 
long suffered from an asthmatic affection, which finally carried him 
off. We have more lately lost an enterprising and learned con- 
chologist in Mr. Lovell Reeve, whose “ Conchologia Iconica” is his 
best monument, a work which, having reached fourteen or fifteen 
volumes, copiously illustrated, is nevertheless unfortunately far 
from being completed. 
