ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. Ill 



(5) Mounting, including: Slides, Preservative Fluids, &c. 



Parallel Brass Rings.- — A series of six parallel brass rings, for 

 mounting specimens parallel with plasticin, is shown in fig. 20. The 

 specimen is laid flat surface downwards on a plate of glass or other 



Pig. 20. 



flat surface, and a ring somewhat deeper than the specimen placed 

 around it. A 3 by 1 in. glass slip with a small piece of plasticin is 

 then pressed upon the specimen till it touches the brass ring. The rings 

 are made by R. and J. Beck. 



(6) Miscellaneous- 

 New Method of Obtaining Anti-Bodies.* — E. Loeffler recommends, 

 after many years extensive research, that the specific material (albumen, 

 blood, bacteria, or tumour) be heated to dryness at a temperature suf- 

 ficiently sustained to kill all living matter without injuring the anti- 

 bodies' activity, and then powdered and inoculated into animals. Fowl 

 albumen, blood, and spore-bearing bacteria are heated for half-an-hour 

 at 150°, non spore-bearing bacteria for 2-3 hours at 120°. Albumen- 

 and blood -precipitins, agglutinins, bactericidal and bacteriolytic material, 

 were thus obtained. A similarly obtained mammary carcinoma serum 

 (asses' serum) precipitated not only carcinoma cells, but also normal 

 gland-cells ; and, further, its inoculation into cachectic patients produced 

 a visible improvement of the general condition and a local reaction, but 

 without any retrogression of the malady. 



Methods of Microscopical Research : Vegetable Histology. f— 

 This work, by Abraham Flatters, is of inestimable value to the student 

 of practical botany. It is no mere compilation of untried methods, but 

 bears throughout the impress of experience. The author has selected 

 for description a few, but yet sufficient, methods which in his hands 

 have proved successful, and adequate attention is given to the technical 

 minutiae on which good results so much depend ; thus saving the 

 student who follows out the instructions much tentative labour and bad 

 results. 



The first part deals with technique generally applicable. After 

 mentioning the importance of collecting specimens at proper times and 

 under suitable conditions, the author dwells at some length on the 

 methods of fixation, the object of which is " to preserve dead tissues in 

 as nearly as possible their natural conditions in the living state." And 

 to emphasise still further this important preliminary to all satisfactory 

 and correct work, two illustrations show the marked contrast between 

 good and bad fixation. 



Chapter II. treats of apparatus and methods of work. The author's 



* Deutsche med. Wochenschr., 1904, No. 52. See also Centralbl. Bakt., l*e Abt., 

 xxxvii. (1905) p. 265. 



t London and Manchester : Sherratt and Hughes (1905) 4to, x. and 116 pp., 

 23 pis. and 29 figs. 



