I 



1880.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



139 



particular, as to where one must go to 

 procure suitable glass for the purpose of 

 making slides, what kind of glass must 

 be inquired for, etc. ? , I find great diffi- 

 culty in procuring glass sufficiently thin, 

 and perfect enough to be used to mount 

 objects upon, and I think that any infor- 

 mation in regard to these points will be 

 acceptable to many readers of your jour- 

 nal besides myself. Of course, it is desir- 

 able to use nothing else but the " best, 

 polished, French glass slides, " but when 

 one is putting up hundreds of slides in 

 the course of a month, the great expense 

 of these tirst-quality slides is an impor- 

 tant item, and we are forced, sometimes, 

 to use very inferior grades of glass in 

 working in haste, especially when a quan- 

 tity of valuable material must be put up 

 immediately. 



Henry V. Hull. 



MOUNTING BOTTLE. 

 To THE Edtor: — My drop-bottle for 

 balsam, damar, etc., is made as follows : 

 Take a morphia bottle, and with a rat- 

 tail file, bore a hole through the centre of 

 its cork, through which pass a piece of 

 glass tubing, drawn to a point at the 

 lower end and somewhat expanded at the 

 upper. Cover the upper end with a rub- 

 ber bulb ; a nipple with the opening closed 

 by means of a heated rod will answer. 

 Put the medium into the bottle, insert the 

 cork, and it will be air-tight. Do not 

 squeeze the bulb while the cork is in the 

 bottle, for the tube and bulb would then 

 fill with the medium when the pressure is 

 withdrawn, thus rendering the apparatus 

 useless. When cement is desired, remove 

 the cork, squeeze the bulb till as many 

 drops as may be required are ol)tained, 

 and return the stopper. By care, the cork 

 and neck of the bottle will be kept clean 

 and the bottle always ready for use. 



Chas. H. Cockey, M. D. 



MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETIES 



NEW YORK. 



The last meeting of this Society, until 

 Fall, was held in the Mott Memorial 

 Hall, No. 64 Madison Avenue. The 

 Society has rented that hall for the en- 

 suing year, and is now more pleasantly 

 located than it has been at any previous 

 time since its organization. Regular at- 

 tendance at the meetings enables us to 

 speak confidently about the condition and 



prospects of this Society, and we do not 

 hesitate to assert that the members have 

 reason to feel well satisfied with the pre- 

 sent outlook. Although the amount of 

 original scientific work done by the mem- 

 bers thus far has been very small, it 

 should be observed that the Society is still 

 young, and in a city like New York, where 

 science receives very little public apprecia- 

 tion, perhaps the first efforts of such a 

 society should be directed in such a way 

 as to make scientific study more attract- 

 ive to the people, if possible. Elsewhere 

 in this journal will be found a few ab- 

 stracts from an address by the President, 

 which was delivered at the beginning of 

 his term of office ; we commend them to 

 those who are interested in the work of 

 societies. 



At the last meeting, which was rather 

 informal, some very interesting objects 

 were shown. Among them were the cir- 

 culation of blood in the foot of a frog 

 while under the influence of curare, and 

 beside this the circulation in the gills of a 

 young tad-pole, both by Mr. Wall ; P. mi- 

 gulatum, by Mr. Wales, under one of his 

 very excellent, cheap objectives, which 

 made the frustule a very attractive object, 

 and the beautiful volvox globator, by Mr. 

 C. S. Shultz. 



During the past season several attempts 

 were made to add to the interest of the 

 meetings. The most successful plan was 

 suggested by Mr. C. F. Cox. He pro- 

 posed that at each meeting some particu- 

 lar subject should be chosen for general 

 discussion. The plan has been tried at 

 two meetings, and has succeeded admir- 

 ably. The subjects chosen were " Para- 

 sites," and " Moulds and their Fructifica- 

 tion," both of which proved very interest- 

 ing and instructive. 



GRIFFITH CLUB, MICH. 



The fascination of microscopical study 

 was well illustrated recently by the de- 

 monstrations of Prof. Chas. H. Stowell, 

 of Michigan University, before the Grif- 

 fith Club of Microscopy. He first showed 

 epithelial cells, which he obtained from 

 the side and roof of his mouth by a move- 

 ment of the tongue, and deposited upon 

 a glass slide. Skimming the air bubbles 

 from the top with a ])in, and removing 

 the surplus saliva with a piece of blotting 

 paper, he added a drop of staining fluid 

 to better define the cells, and placing the 

 preparation under a microscope, exhibited 

 a multitude of thin, transparent scales, 

 each about one-five-hundredth of an inch 

 in diameter, and containing a nucleus in 



