ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 105 



(2 Preparing Objects. 



Fixing and Staining the Goblet Cells in the Epidermis of 

 Fishes.* — M. Oxner found that only two fixatives gave good results. 

 These were Apathy's (equal parts of a saturated solution of sublimate in 

 h p.c. sodium chloride and 1 p.c. osmic acid) and Johnson's (in the 

 same proportions as used for the Golgi reaction, but without the platinum 

 chloride). The fixing time was from 15-24 hours. The material was 

 cleared up in chloroform, cedar-wood oil, or xylol. The sections were 

 stained with iron-haematoxylin, hamiatein IA, and after-stained with 

 acid rubin, orange G, orcein, light green S.F., or with erythrosin, 

 saturated aqueous solution of kreso-fuchsin, with subsequent differentia- 

 tion in picric acid. Acid rubin was found to be very effective. Victoria 

 blue stained the goblet-cells dark blue, the rest of the tissue being 

 unaffected. 



Apathy's gold method, alcoholic safranin, Apathy's rubin S, were 

 also of much service. 



Demonstrating the Heart and Arteries of Rhipidoglossa and 

 Docoglossa.f — J. Spillmann fixed most of the animals in aqueous or 

 alcoholic solution of sublimate. For the heart muscle Flemming's fluid 

 and osmic acid were used with good result. Picro-acetic (saturated solu- 

 tion picric acid and glacial acetic acid in equal parts) was employed for 

 fixing the kidney. Owing to the brittleness of the material, difficulties 

 were experienced with the paraffin imbedding, but these were obviated 

 by using cedar-wood oil instead of xylol. At first the sections were 

 stuck on the slide with glycerin-albumen, but this method was after- 

 wards superseded by warm water. The preparations were dried 

 ■(? incubated) for 2 days, and then coated with a thin layer of collodion. 



The best stain was iron-ha^matoxylin, but Bohmer's and Delafield's 

 hematoxylin were also used. Safranin was employed for detecting 

 nuclear fission in the pericardiac glands. 



Demonstrating Spermatogenesis of Scolopendra heros.J — M. W. 

 Blackman, when studying the spermatogenesis of Scolopendra heros, 

 fixed the material with Flemming's chrom-osmic-acetic mixture or with 

 Gilson's nitric-acetic-sublimate. The latter gave the better results. 

 After a fixation of from 48-60 hours the objects were washed for several 

 hours in running water, and then dehydrated in graded alcohols. The 

 combined celloidin and paraffin method of imbedding was used. The 

 sections made with the Minot microtome were fixed to the slide with 

 albumen. The paraffin was then removed, and in some cases the 

 celloidin also. The sections were stained with Heidenhain's haemato- 

 xylin, either alone or in conjunction with Congo red. Other stains 

 used were Bismarck brown, cyanin, methyl-green, methyl-green-acid - 

 fuchsin, Flemming's tricolour stain, and others. 



(3) Cutting, including' Imbedding: and Microtomes. 



Acetone-celloidin Method of Rapid Imbedding.§ — F. Scholz places 

 pieces not thicker than 3 mm. in pure acetone for half an hour. They 



* Jena Zeitschr. Natur., xl. (1905) pp. 589-646 (5 pis.). 



t Tom. cit., pp. 537-88 (3 pis.). 



X Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard, xlviii. (1905) 138 pp., 9 pis. 



§ Deutsch. med. Wochenschr., xxxi. (1905) pp. 419-20. J 



