64 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [March, 



Box incomes from New Britain, Conn., and vicinity, is evidently not 

 yet a veteran in the Club service, and represents the work of five pre- 

 parers. 



Slide No. i is a remarkably clean specimen of head of Wasp, by Dr. 

 I. F. Stidham. Nos. 2 and 6 are the work of Mr. M. S. Wiard, and 

 bear testimony alike to the skill of the preparer and the excellence of 

 the cement used. The slides are: five species of pollen, unstained, 

 mounted in castor oil on one slide, and Young of Horse-shoe Crab, 

 Limulus polyphcemus , stained with carmine and mounted in balsam. 

 The cements used are those so well known of Rev. J. D. King. No. 

 3, by Chas. N. Burgess, picrotoxin crystals, a bitter intoxicating poison 

 sometimes used as a narcotic in medicine, from the seeds of the climb- 

 ing plant Cocculus Indicus. No. 4, Skin of Sole, opaque, by J. R. 

 Stoddard. No. 5, by H. C. Deane, Section of Human Bronchial Tube, 

 stained with hematoxylin, and mounted in balsam. 



Box 4$. This extra box of diatom slides was prepared and contrib- 

 uted by M. A. Booth, of Longmeadow, Mass. The diatoms are from 

 the following localities : Anjino, Russia, newly discovered and differ- 

 ing somewhat from the famous Simbirsk deposit; Brunn, Bohemia; 

 Moron, Spain ; Szent Peters, Hungary ; Pudasjocai, Finland ; and 

 Bay of Bengal. The special point of interest for which these slides are 

 contributed is their rarity. All, save that from Bay of Bengal, are 

 fossil. These forms from Bay of Bengal are so peculiar that it would 

 be hard to convince the novice, accustomed to the regular outline of 

 diatoms, that these are really members of the diatom family, but the 

 fact that besides the usual treatment they have been exposed to a glow- 

 ing heat until all the organic matter has been burned out indisputably 

 proves their silicious nature. They consist largely of species of Chaeto- 

 cerous and Bacteriastrum (figured on Nos. 50 and 51 of the Greville 

 Plates). Carpenter on page 353 says, of Bacteriastrum, "there are 

 sometimes as many as 12 of these awns radiating from each frustule like 

 the spokes of a wheel, in some instances regularly bifurcating." 



A caution is uttered in the note-book which accompanies this box 

 as to the too common careless handling of slides by piling them upon 

 each other, a usage which no slide capable of injury can bear unharmed. 

 An expression of the experience of the members of the Club with regard 

 to dry mounts is sought (the Bay of Bengal slide being a dry mount), 

 and the opinion of Mr. A. C. Cole, as set forth in his " Studies in Mi- 

 croscopical Science," vol. ii, is quoted : " All dry mounts of diatoms, 

 whether strewed or selected, are liable to destruction or deterioration 

 from an accumulation of moistui'e upon the under side of the cover, 

 which moisture, sooner or later, and in defiance of all precautions, 

 always makes its appearance. Dry mounts are therefore always more 

 or less unsatisfactory and unreliable and to be avoided as much as 

 possible. The best method of mounting diatoms dry, whether for test 

 or as arranged slides, is to make a cell of the best asphalt." 



It is possible that climate may exert an important influence On the 

 reliability of a cement. Obviously in this country our climate or our 

 asphalt is at fault. 



W. C. Walker, F. R. M. S., of Utica, N. Y., gave an illustrated lee-, 

 ture on the microscope in that city January 16th, under the auspices of 

 St. Andrew's Brotherhood. 



