IMBEDDING IN ELDER PITH FOR CUTTING SECTIONS. 23 
segments from the neck may go on to an infinite extent) 
we obtain over 7,000,000 germs from one parent stem, each 
one capable of originating a similar colony under favorable 
conditions. 
Addendum.—Since the above was written, in a recent 
post-mortem at Netley an example of four T. mediocanellata 
in the same subject was met with. For the last four and a 
half years the man had not been out of England, for the last 
one year and eleven months he had been continually in hed, 
with a fractured spine, and within a few days of death 
(when he passed a number of segments) he was not known 
to be infested by the parasite. The largest of the parasite 
colonies measured 69 inches, and was composed of about 
880 segments; there were marked differences between the 
colonies in total length, in size of segments at corresponding 
points in the colonies, in the degree of regularity of the 
genital pit, in the more or less distinctness of the so-called 
neck, and in the general aspect and clearness or opacity of 
the zooids; the breadth of the broadest segment in one 
colony measured ;,ths in.,as compared with >ths and {ths 
to =3,ths in the corresponding segments of the others; the 
combined features showing a marked range between indi- 
vidual colonies, and indicating how unreliable these points 
are for the differentiation of one species from the other of the 
same genus. 
ImBeDDING in Exper Piru, for Currine Sections. By C. 
H. Gotpine Birp, B.A., M.B., Lond., F.R.C.S.E., 
Hon. Secretary to the Medical Microscopical Society.' 
SomE time ago a paper was read before this Society 
explaining the modus operandi of section cutting after 
imbedding in wax ; and taken as a whole, there is nothing in 
that process that is objectionable, nor is there anything 
wanting to allow of its being as perfect a method as 
possible of attaining the end for which it was designed. It 
is, therefore, not as a rival that I bring before your notice the 
process in elder pith—one known, perhaps, to some of you, 
though not generally adopted in this country; yet it pos- 
sesses certain advantages over the one in wax, and especially 
1 Read before the Medical Microscopical Society, June 19, 1874. 
