100 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[May, 1882. 



a determined seeker after the shadowy 

 tracery supposed to exist in the filmy Am- 

 phipleura pellncida. He was a physi- 

 cian ; but the infatuation of staring 

 through his microscope, in a vain effort to 

 " resolve " this misty diatom, gradually 

 absorbed all his time, destroyed his prac- 

 tice, and so encroached upon his means 

 that he became poor. Finally, his one- 

 tenth-inch objective, by Spencer, became 

 the substitute for his best suit of clothes. 

 A fifteenth, and then a twentieth objective, 

 by Wales took the place of his pawned 

 gold repeater and auction-sold library. 

 His shining silk hat and his sleeve-buttons 

 were forsaken for a slouch " Derby " and 

 an achromatic condenser. He wore a 

 shirt two days to save washing bills in 

 order to obtain an Abraham's prism, and 

 he starved himself on cheap victuals that 

 he might buy a second prism for an addi- 

 tional ray of oblique light. He neglected 

 his friends, who never saw him when his 

 head was not bent over the microscope. 

 Weaker and weaker he grew in his wild 

 chase after the phantom lines, till death 

 overtook him one night as he sat in his 

 barren room, surrounded by glittering 

 brass tubes and flashing accessories, and 

 his last breath was spent in a feeble at- 

 tempt to whisper faintly : " Wider angle." 



O. C. 



[For the information of those readers 

 who may not be quite willing to credit 

 the stoiy as related by our correspondent, 

 we may say that there is " more truth 

 than fiction " in it, as a number of New 

 Yorkers well know. — Ed.] 



MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETIES 



since our last issue, the Elmira Mi- 

 croscopical Society gave its first annual 

 soiree, on April 20th, for which great 

 preparations were made. We are indebted 

 to both Dr. Gleason, the President, and 

 Dr. Up de Graff for complimentary tickets. 

 We have no doubt the occasion was very 

 enjoyable, and we very much regretted 

 our inability to be present. 



At the Camden Microscopical Society, 

 Prof. C. H. Kain discussed the subject of 

 photomicrography, on the evening of 

 April 6th. We have already printed a 

 summary of his remai'ks on that subject, 

 but one point of importance was omitted 

 in the published article, which is that the 

 dry-plates are quite sensitive to yellow 

 light, and are therefore peculiarly adapted 



to such work. Two photographs were 

 taken at the meeting, with excellent re- 

 sult. 



At a meeting of the New York Mi- 

 croscopical Society held on April 7th, Mr. 

 Hitchcock spoke on the genetic relations 

 of fresh-water algas. The substance of 

 his remarks will be published next month. 

 Some specimens of algse were exhibited, 

 among them Coleochcete sctitata and a fine 

 specimen of CEdogonium Boscii in fruit. 

 Some other objects of interest were also 

 shown. 



At the meeting of April 21st, the sub- 

 ject of illumination was to have been dis- 

 cussed, but so much time was taken up 

 by remarks about some objects which 

 were brought for exhibition, that the sub- 

 ject for the evening was laid over for one 

 month. Mr. E. G. Day exhibited a Zeiss' 

 objective, ranging in power from a 2-inch 

 to a 4-inch , the magnification being, 

 changed by turning the collar. Mr. War- 

 nock showed A. pellucida with a Tolles 

 1-6-inch homogeneous-immersion object- 

 ive, having a prism set in the objective for 

 illumination from above. This objective 

 was the first homogeneous-immersion to 

 which the prism illuminator had been ap- 

 plied. The diatom was well shown, the 

 lines being very well defined. Mr. Bra- 

 man showed the Protococcus ftivaizs, or 

 " red snow." Mr. Van Brunt stated that 

 he had found an alga in snow at Pough- 

 keepsie, N. Y., which seemed identical 

 with the red snow. He mounted some of 

 the cells, but they had all turned green. 

 A number of other objects were shown. 



At a meeting held May 5th, the subject 

 of photomicrography was discussed, and 

 a negative was prepared at the meeting. 



Dr. Younghusband recently delivered 

 a lecture on the subject of Biology before 

 the Chautauqua Circle, of Detroit. At 

 the close of the lecture, a number of 

 objects were shown under the micro- 

 scope, illustrating points brought out in 

 the discourse. Among the many ob- 

 jects shown were the circulation of the 

 blood in a frog's foot, exhibited by Elmer 

 Willyoung ; the growth of the yeast plant, 

 by Preston Hickey ; the circulation of the 

 blood in the tail of a fish, by Wm. Young- 

 husband. Mr. Reynolds showed the eels 

 in sour paste, and many other interesting 

 slides. Among the other objects, and the 

 ones that probably attracted the most at- 

 tention, were the circulation of the proto- 

 plasm in chara, exhibited by Mr. Duncan, 

 and the amoeba, by Mr. Lapham. 



