1 894.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 321 



rest for the finger while adjusting tlie position of the tube is pro- 

 vided. Mr. Davis also describes a plan for reducing the bear- 

 ing surface of the sliding tube to a pair of narrow strips parallel 

 with the axis thereof. He is thus enabled to lacquer a very con- 

 siderable portion of the sliding tube, where it is exposed to view, 

 and materially improve the appearance of the instrument. 

 There is, perha.ps more that is of a patentable character in this 

 last proposition of Mr. Davis' than in the others — but we do 

 not like it. Admitting that it is an important object, in connec- 

 tion with elaborately finished instruments, to get rid of the ap- 

 pearance which is apt to characterize unlacquered brass, we do 

 not think that the wholesale reduction of bearing surface of the 

 slide is mechanically admissible. As we have said before, and 

 hope to show more fully in due course, the parallel motion 

 linkage is l)etter adapted than the slide for use in high-class 

 philosophical instruments. Slides are very well for rough pur- 

 poses and machine tools of precision, but they are both un- 

 slightly and unnecessary for adjusting purposes in ornamental 

 microscopes and other such apparatus. — The Optician. 



MICROSCOPICAL MANIPULATION. 



Simplification of Laboratory Methods. — Dr. William C. 

 Krauss, Professor of Pathology in the Medical Department of 

 Niagara University, Buffalo, N. Y., refers to the time and an- 

 noyance of labelling the bottles containing specimens, to the 

 large number of bottles necessary to keep the various tissues 

 separate and the expense incurred in conducting a laboratory 

 on such a plan. He proposes the following method. 



The sections of the various tissues to be later on examined, 

 after hardening and dehydration, are cut in small cubes of 1 to 

 2 c. centimeters. They are then placed in a wide-mouthed 

 bottle having a cork stopper, on the upper side of which is a deep 

 crease. A piece of heavy card board, 1 to 2 centimeters square 

 with the name of the specimen, case, date and reference writ- 

 ten upon it, is slipped into the crease just referred to and the 

 bottle contents are thus securely labelled. During the process 

 of embedding, the original card-board label can be transferred 

 from one cork to another until the specimen is securely fas- 

 tened upon its own cork ready for section cutting. These spe- 



