1883.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



197 



fore the section. The Vice-President 

 of the section for the meeting next 

 j'car is Prof. T. G. Wormle}^ who is 

 well known to niicroscopists, and tlie 

 secretary is the editor of this Journal. 



NOTES. 



— We have already referred to some 

 fine enibryological specimens which have 

 been introduced in England, prepared by 

 a new method. The slides we had then 

 examined, mostly consisting of eggs of 

 small entomostraca, seemed to have been 

 remarkably well-preserved. We have 

 since had the pleasure of meeting the 

 gentleman who prepares the specimens, 

 Mr. E. Lovett, from whom we have 

 learned some particulars of the method ot 

 preparation. The composition of the 

 fluid used will be made public m the fall, 

 but at present we are not at liberty to dis- 

 close it. None of the specimens are al- 

 lowed to go out until they have been in 

 the preservative at least six months, so as 

 to ensure them against future change 

 after they are mounted. The cement 

 used has been subjected to extremes of 

 temperature from 28° to 120'' F. without 

 the slightest effect upon the mount, and 

 a set of the sHdes exhibited at the Fish- 

 eries Exhibition, where they have been 

 subjected to strong sunlight in a glass 

 case, shows not a single damaged speci- 

 men. When Mr. Lovett publishes his 

 method of mounting, microscopists will be 

 under great obligations to him for a 

 method that has stood the test of time so 

 perfectly. The slides are for sale here by 

 Messrs. Sinel & Co., of St. Heliers, Jersey, 

 and by C. Baker, Holborn, London. 



— In a notice of Dr. Sternberg's new 

 book on " Photomicrographs and How to 

 Make Them," a writer in the Scientific 

 Ajnerican who, it would seem, is not es- 

 pecially well-informed on the subject, ap- 

 pears to be quite taken aback by the 

 word photo-micrography. He says : — 



" This handsome volume, which the author in 

 his preface calls "little," although containing 

 over two hundred octavo pages, is intended 

 for beginners in the art of micro-photography 

 — a term more definite than the inverse of 

 photo-micrography, chosen by the author." 

 For ourselves, and in behalf of all lov- 

 ers of good EngHsh, we are constrained 

 to defend the use of the word photo-mi- 



crography in the sense it is used by the 

 author of the book. Not to enter upon a 

 philological controversy, we would call the 

 attention of the author of the above criti- 

 cism to the fact, recognized by all micro- 

 scopists, that the word micro-photograph 

 means a small photograph, while the term 

 photo-micrograph means a photograph of 

 an image formed by a microscope. 



— Mr. Walmsley gives the following 

 table of the proper exposures with Beck's 

 objectives in photographing with his ap- 

 paratus, using lamp-light and very sensi- 

 tive plates : — 



— Mr. H. J. Slack recommends the use 

 of parafifine oil for the examination of liv- 

 ing aphides. The insects may be placed 

 in a good quahty of petroleum oil, in a 

 cell, and examined with various kinds of 

 illumination, a very pleasing effect being 

 obtained by the use of the lieberkuhn in 

 conjunction with an achromatic conden- 

 ser with the central stop for dark-ground. 

 The insects will live for some time in the 

 oil, occasionally for hours. This method 

 is certainly superior to the ordinary way 

 of examining living creatures. Another 

 method which possesses some merit we 

 noticed at a meeting of the Quekett Micro- 

 scopical Club. The insects were in a 

 round shallow box on the table, and by 

 means of a substage condenser a minia- 

 ture image of the bottom of the box was 

 formed in the focus of the objective. 

 This is an excellent and very easy method 

 of displaying living insects under the 

 microscope. 



— In describing the new microscope 

 made by Messrs. W. Watson & Sons, of 

 London, which we have already referred to 

 in these columns as a copy of Mr. Bul- 

 loch's "Biological" stand, the editor of 

 the Journal of the Royal Microscopical 

 Society alludes to Mr. Bulloch's design 

 in the following appreciative words: — 

 "We have always considered Bulloch's 

 Biological Microscope to be one of 

 the handiest and most practical forms of 

 stand made, and equally useful for bio- 

 logical examinations and for the more 

 special examinations of test objects." 

 This is praise from high quarters, of 

 which Mr. Bulloch may be justly proud. 



