58 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[March, 



make objectives fully equal to the best, 

 which he sells at a lower price than is 

 charged by some of his competitors. 

 But it cannot be said that this latest 

 production has proved so vastly 

 superior to anything previously seen 

 in New York, to justify the great 

 expectations aroused by the letter to 

 Mr. Van Brunt which he read at the 

 meeting of the Society. To say that 

 it is equal to the best, is sufficient, 

 and justly deserved, praise. The 

 price of the new -^V? '^^'i^h a collar 

 adjustment, is $75.00 ; without a collar 

 it is sold for $10.00 less. 



NOTES. 



— Dr. George M. Sternberg has written 

 a work, soon to be published, on " Photo- 

 micrographs and How to Make them," 

 which will be illustrated with seventeen 

 heliotype plates, taken from his best nega- 

 tives. We look forward to the publica- 

 tion of the work with much interest. 



— Mr. J. S. Kingsley describes the fol- 

 lowing method of imbedding, in Scientific 

 and Literary Gossip : — 



The substance to be imbedded is hard- 

 ened after any of the usual methods and 

 placed, from alcohol into turpentine and 

 then transferred to a saturated solution 

 of paraffin in turpentine, the same as in 

 other methods of paraffin embedding. 

 Here is where the novelty comes in. The 

 specimen is removed from the mixture 

 and the superfluous fluid removed by 

 means of blotting paper and then placed 

 on the end of a cylinder of paraffin (or 

 paraffin and vaselin). A bit of stout iron 

 wire is now heated in the flame of a spirit 

 lamp, and with it a hole is melted in the 

 end of the cylinder and the specimen 

 then pushed into the melted paraffin and 

 placed in any desired position. The ad- 

 vantages of the method are : the quick- 

 ness with which it may be performed, for 

 from the time when the operation is 

 begun until sections can be cut is not 

 over three minutes, while the "melting of 

 so small an amount of paraffin prevents 

 any injury to tissues by overheating. In 

 embedding solid bodies, a slight variation 

 sometimes results in the saving of more 

 time. The specimen may be embedded 

 directly from alcohol without the inter- 



vening turpentine and then when the sec- 

 tion is cut it readily separates from the 

 shaving of paraffin without the use of tur- 

 pentine to dissolve it. This, of course, 

 applies to solid bodies without cavities or 

 irregular outline. 



— The first two numbers, of the Bulle- 

 tin of the Buffalo Naturalists' Field Club, 

 bound in a pamphlet of 48 pages, has re- 

 cently come to hand. The numbers are 

 to be issued bi-monthly, each number to 

 consist of 24 pages. It is edited by Prof. 

 Kellicott, Eugene Fish and Mary B. 

 Moody, and the subscription price is 

 $1.00 per year. 



— Dr. M. Schulgin recommends for 

 imbedding a mixture of paraffin (fusing 

 point 55^) with a proper quantity of cere- 

 sin. The latter is a substance similar to 

 wax but rather harder and tougher. The 

 thin cuts are not brittle, as when paraffin 

 alone is used. A small quantity of vas- 

 elin will soften the mass if that is desir- 

 able. 



— The sixth volume of the Annates of 

 the Microscopical Society of Belgium has 

 been published. It contains two me- 

 moirs ; one by Mr. Julien Deby on the 

 microscopical appearances of the valves 

 of diatoms — the second article by the 

 author on the subject — treating of the 

 genus Amphora ; the other by M. A. Re- 

 nard is a lithological description of speci- 

 mens of the reefs {recifs) of the island of 

 Saint Paul, in the Atlantic, obtained by 

 the " Challenger " expedition. The lat- 

 ter is a long and valuable contribution 

 with three figures of sections of the rock. 

 The remainder of the volume is taken up 

 with the Bulletins des Stances. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



To THE Editor. — In the January 

 number of the Journal, inquiry is made, 

 in course of a review of another article, 

 as to the possibility of finding Chara and 

 Nitella growing in midwinter. For five 

 years past 1 have secured an abundance 

 of Nitella from a springy pool on the 

 marsh north of Ithaca. I use it for class 

 (laboratory) work, and it is in excellent 

 condition sliowing the apical cell, cell-for- 

 mation, and motile protoplasm, as well as 

 in summer time. I have no doubt it 

 might be found growing, or rather the 

 Charas might, in the deeper waters of our 



