1881.] 



MICEOSCOPICAL jot]r:nal. 



177 



careful work of painstaking editors. 

 No very extensive alterations in the 

 text, however, have been made thus 

 far ; but as yet we have only seen 

 thirty-two pages of the dictionary 

 proper, and we have reason to ex- 

 pect great changes in some places. 

 Four plates, engraved on metal, ac- 

 company each part, two of them, one 

 representing desmids and the other 

 sections of rocks, being printed in 

 colors ; the others represent diatoms, 

 vegetable tissues, foraminifera, ento- 

 zoa and adulterations, — the latter is 

 a new plate, as is also one plate of 

 foraminifera. 



Without dwelling longer upon the 

 contents of the parts before us, we 

 feel disposed to say a few words 

 about the general usefulness of the 

 work. Persons who use the microscope 

 for pleasure or recreation, constantly 

 find new objects which they are un- 

 able to classify. The numerous 

 plates in this dictionary afford great 

 assistance in many cases of that kind, 

 and to the amateur it should, and 

 we hope and believe that the fourth 

 edition will, meet this growing want 

 among general students more per- 

 fectly than its predecessor. 



Specialists in their chosen branches 

 will find the different departments of 

 study with which they are unfamiliar 

 treated by competent authors. Those 

 who cannot afford to buy a number 

 of large and costly volumes treating of 

 the various subjects in which they are 

 interested would find this dictionary 

 an excellent substitute. The parts 

 are published at 2s. 6d. each, and the 

 postage will be about 2d., making 2s. 

 Sd. to subscribers in this country, or 

 68 cents. 



It is thought there will be twenty- 

 one parts in all, making the cost of 

 the complete work ^14.28. The old 

 edition, bound, now sells for $22.50. 

 Many persons object to subscribing 

 for books published in parts ; but 

 when a work of this kind is under- 

 taken by Mr. Van Voorst, to whom 

 the scientific world is indebted for 

 so many valuable and expensive 



works, no person need hesitate from 

 any want of confidence in the repre- 

 sentations of the publisher. 

 o 



Double-Stained Blood-Corpus- 

 cles. — A few days ago, we had an 

 opportunity to examine some of Mr. 

 A. Y. Moore's preparations of Blood- 

 corpuscles, at the store of Mr. Geo. S. 

 Woolman, and it affords us pleasure 

 to call the attention of our readers to 

 these most excellent preparations. 

 They are all very neatly mounted and 

 the corpuscles are very evenly spread 

 over the slides. Among the double- 

 stained preparations, we found blood- 

 cells from the snapping turtle, the 

 common turtle, the frog and the 

 perch, in all of which the nuclei 

 were colored blue and the rest of the 

 corpuscles red, the distinction being 

 sharply defined. These slides are a 

 novelty well worth possessing. 

 o 



The Microscope and its Revela- 

 tions. — The sixth edition of . this 

 valuable work, by William B. Carpen- 

 ter, has been before the American 

 public for about a month, and we 

 understand from the publisher (Pres- 

 ley Blakiston, Philadelphia) that 

 many copies have been already sold. 

 The main features of the book are 

 so well known to microscopists gen- 

 erally that we will only notice a few 

 of the additions to, and improvements 

 upon, the last edition. 



In passing we must call attention 

 to the fact that Prof. Riddell was the 

 inventor of the first successful bin- 

 ocular microscope, and not M. Na- 

 chet, as stated on p. ^^.* 



In the description of microscope 

 stands, American manufacturers have 

 been almost entirely ignored. The 

 new microscope designed by Mr. 

 George Wale, is the only American 

 stand illustrated ; and, although Mr. 

 Zentmayer has received some credit 

 for his improvements, these are des- 

 cribed in connection with the stands 

 by Ross, but further than this Ame- 



* This Journal, Vol. I, p. 221. 



