1886.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



215 



ask the indulgence of our readers, 

 since thev happened at a time when 

 the Journal was changing hands. 

 The first is the reading Hai'icula^ 

 page 138, in the letter signed W., the 

 other is Tuckett in the letter of J. P. 

 Thompson, page 159. The former 

 of these should read Navicular the 

 latter ^uekett. 



NOTES. 



— We are in receipt of postal box of 

 slides from Theodore Hinrichs, Pratt and 

 Fulton streets, Baltimore, sent to us for 

 examination. The slides all bear the title, 

 Marpmann's Microscopical Institute, 

 Esens, Germany, for which Mr. Hinrichs 

 is the sole American agent. The slides 

 are B. cholera, Micr. bombyeis, After, stim. 

 ulator, Bacill lactis, B. anthracis, B.fla- 

 vescens, Saccharoniyces congloDieratis. 

 These are all finely stained and mounted 

 and show superior technical skill in hand- 

 ling such objects. 



— We note from Sciejice Gossip, No. 

 261, p. 210, Sept., 1886, the announcement 

 of four parts of vol. iv of Cole's Studies 

 in Microscopical Science. The subjects 

 discussed are : — Studies inVegetable Phys- 

 iology, as illustrated by the vegetable cell ; 

 The Mammalian Testis ; The Normal Kid- 

 ney ; The Sea Fans. ' The work is con- 

 tinued on exactly the same lines as here- 

 tofore, and the colored illustrations are 

 equal to any of their predecessors in care- 

 ful drawing and artistic finish. The slides 

 accompanying each part are in Mr. Cole's 

 best style of mounting.' 



— Journal of Morphology is the title of 

 a new journal which is announced by 

 Prof C. O. Whitman, of Milwaukee, Wis- 

 consin. The journal is to be an Ameri- 

 can journal of animal morphology, to 

 admit all worthy articles on embryological, 

 anatomical, or histological subjects. Only 

 original articles, which deal thoroughly 

 with the subject in hand, will be admitted 

 to its pages ; short notes, desultory obser- 

 vations, etc., being excluded. Its size is to 

 be crown octavo; a number will contain 100 

 to 150 pages, and from five to ten double 

 plates. From the excellent reputation of 

 Prof Whitman and the corps of support- 

 ers who are mentioned in his circular, as 

 well as from knowledge of the excellent 

 prcs^work of the publishers, Ginn & Com- 

 pany, of Boston, we confidently expect a 



very creditable production. The first num- 

 ber is promised early in 1887. 



— The National Druggist, published 

 weekly in St. Louis, is a live and interest- 

 ing paper. With much that a commercial 

 periodical would be expected to furnish, 

 such as price-lists, numerous advertise- 

 ments, etc., it contains in addition a great 

 deal of interesting matter, and has one 

 column exclusively devoted to micros- 

 copy. In two recent numbers an article 

 by the editor, H. M. Whelpley, has been 

 published upon the importance of the mi- 

 croscope in pharmacy. It points out the 

 value of the microscope in detecting adul- 

 terations, and refers to the fact that much 

 can be seen with a very inexpensive instru- 

 ment. The article is a timely one. We 

 can't buy pure drugs of the retail dealer 

 because he can't get them, and he claims 

 that no blame rests on him for selling adul- 

 terated articles. But if he could detect 

 the adulteration, as he often could by a 

 very slight microscopic examination, the 

 wholesale dealer would be very soon forced 

 into honest dealing. 



— Dr. John S. Newberry, the distin- 

 guished professor of geology in Columbia 

 College, opens the November number 

 of The Popular Science Monthly with the 

 story of the great ancient ice-sheet which 

 once covered half our continent, and 

 which, more than any other single cause, 

 gave to it its present surface configuration. 

 With the aid of illustrations the record left 

 by this mighty agency of the past is very 

 clearly interpreted for the general reader, 

 who will obtain from the account an insight 

 into the mode of working of nature's forces 

 that only years of special study could afford. 



— The suggestion of Prof. J. H. Pills- 

 bury upon a convenient way to prepare 

 lantern slides is a most excellent one. He 

 suggests the use of a thin film of gelatin 

 such as can be procured from any lithog- 

 rapher. Upon this, with a needle or 

 other sharp-pointed instrument, the pic- 

 ture to be used in the lantern is copied by 

 tracing with deep or shallow scratches. 

 The scratches will appear on the screen 

 as black lines or dots upon a white ground. 

 The films may be conveniently used in 

 the lantern by placing them between two 

 glass plates of ordinary lantern size. 

 This method recommends itself to us as 

 far better than the old one of coating a 

 slide with gelatin and drawing a picture 

 with pen and ink. We think a combina- 

 tion of the two schemes might be still bet- 

 ter, viz : To coat the lantern slide with 

 gelatin over the area to be scratched, 



