328 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Oct. 



EDITORIAL. 



Benjamin F. Quinby, of Chicag-o, died suddenly at Gos- 

 hen, Ind., July 18, 1897, ag-ed 62 years. He was born in 

 Concord, N. H. and moved to Chicag-o in 1853, having- pre- 

 viously been in a wholesale g-rocery in Philadelphia. For 

 twenty years past he has been in employ of Fuller, Fuller 

 & Co. 



He was active in scientific matters and was one of the 

 oldest members and at one time president of the Illinois 

 State Microscopical society. He was also a member of the 

 Academy of Science of Philadelphia, and that of Chicag-o, 

 and of the Royal Microscopical society of London. He was 

 well known as an entomolog-ist and his microscopical prep- 

 arations on insects were known in many other places than 

 Chicago. 



Life in Diamonds. — Professor von Schoen, of the fac- 

 ulty of Naples University, and Professor Edward Von 

 Hoist of the Chicago University, propose to obliterate the 

 line of demarkation between the org-anic world and dia- 

 monds. They have made photomicrog-raphs, which views, 

 says the Mineral Collector, show the crystal in its birth, 

 the head showing- forth from the mother crystal, and the 

 course is followed as it pushes out and away. The crys- 

 tal meets another one from a different mother. The two 

 strike at each other, they fig-ht, strive and clasp with each 

 other. It is a case of the survival of the fittest. One 

 must die. No two crystals from the same mother ever 

 fig-ht, however, no matter where they meet. 



MICROSCOPICAL APPARATUS. 



Photo-Micrography. — The following- is perhaps the 

 most simple method of doing- what is required. Take a 

 smoothly-planed board about 3ft. by 6in. by }im., and 

 straig-ht down the center thereof cut a slotabout 2ft. long- 

 by >4in. wide, and lastly, affix on the under side, at each 

 extreme end, a fillet about l>2in. wide by %in. thick to 

 streng-then the board and raise it slig-htly from the sur- 



