388 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Dec 



and arterial motion and the chang-es g'oing- on in the white 

 cells, are of g-reat interest. They indicate something- of 

 the nature of life and disease. The stream of circulating- 

 human blood is so swift that the eye cannot keep pace with 

 it, and the chang-es in the white blood cells are correspond- 

 ing-ly rapid. Some of the pictures show a white cell on 

 the fast moving- stream, like a white cap on the sea, con- 

 stantly chang-ing- its shape. It throws out or takes in its 

 arms like an octopus, seizing- the microbes in its path. In 

 disease this movement of the arms takes place with much 

 less energ-y than in health. These pictures cannot fail to 

 be of g-reat value in the study of diseases. The micromo- 

 toscope will g-reatly aid in the investig-ation of phenomena 

 of action of ameboid life in water. — Elect. Age. 



MICROSCOPICAL MANIPULATION. 



Mounting Chara.^ — A. Flatters finds that the fruit of 

 chara makes a g-ood slide when mounted in g-lycerin jelly. 

 After cleaning- he places it in 92 per cent alcohol for sev- 

 eral hours, then transfers into a mixture of equal parts of 

 spirit and g-lycerin for several hours long-er, after which 

 he pours off nearly all of the mixture and adds pure g-ly- 

 cerin at intervals till the g-lycerin becomes concentrated. 

 B^inally the object is mounted in g-lycerin jelly in a cavity 

 slip just deep enoug-h to take it without pressure. A sec- 

 ond method is to mount in balsam, as follows: — After 

 cleaning-, g-raduate throug-h 25 per cent, SO per cent, to 92 

 percent alcohol and allow to stand in the last streng-th for 

 several hours. Take a tube and put in it oil of cloves. On 

 the top of the oil pour a little absolute alcohol. Immerse 

 the specimen g-ently in the alcohol and allow it to sink to 

 the bottom of the tube. When clear mount in balsam and 

 benzole. If transferred direct from the spirit into oil of 

 cloves, objects will shrivel and be spoiled, hence the nec- 

 essity of the g-raduating- method. To see the antheridia 

 properly, sections should be made. — Science Gossip, iv., 88. 



Vegetable Sections. — The best results are obtained by 

 first bleaching- the tissues, and the bestag-ent for this pur- 



