1900] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 131 



a test-object ; and unless some other worker knows the se- 

 cret, it is likely to become one of the lost arts, and, as we 

 at present know it, a rarity. Mr. Topping was always a 

 little reticent regarding his method of preparing this ob- 

 ject, and if he were asked whether he would mind saying 

 how it was done, he promptly replied "With pleasure, 

 sir," and proceeded as follows : ''I put a piece of sugar 

 upon my bench and hold a blow-fly very closely to it ; di- 

 rectly he puts out his proboscis to touch the sugar, I just 

 snip off the tongue with a pair of scissors I keep handy 

 for the purpose, and straightway mount it." With the 

 death of Mr. Topping one of the links with the early days 

 of practical microscopy is broken, and the whole micro- 

 scopical world is the richer for his years of hard work and 

 the poorer by his death. He leaves a widow, who was a 

 helpmeet, not only in his domestic life, but in his busi- 

 ness labors, for forty-six years. He leaves also three 

 daughters. — Fred. W. Watson Baker, 313 High Holborn, 

 London. 



Habit of Amusement in Rotifers. — James Weir, jun., 

 M. D., describes inter alia a rotifer which he has named 

 Melicerta copeii found in Tennessee. This rotifer must 

 be more highly developed intellectually than the effete 

 organisms of the Old World, as Dr. Weir has plainly ob- 

 served it in its "moments of relaxation, during which it 

 engages in sports and pastimes." Its residence is a coni- 

 cal tube, which it leaves only "when on pleasure bent." 

 In fact, says Dr. Weir, "I am convinced that it never 

 leaves home unless in search of pleasure. Several of these 

 little animals will meet in a still pool and immediately 

 begin a game of 'tag' or 'hide-and-go-seek.' " Then fol- 

 lows a vivid description of the game as played by these 

 exceptionally interesting animals, until one almost wishes 

 he were a boy again, or better still a rotifer. Mr. Weir's 

 observations, however, extend still further, and he has 

 observed in the eyes of Melicerta an arrangement of cells 



