1889.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 239 



reported as an adulterant of powdered acacia, and that, owing to the 

 minuteness of the grains of this starch, it would not be noticed with 

 low powers. 



H. M. Whelpley exhibited specimens of both white and yellow dex- 

 trin, mounted in balsam and in glycerine. He dwelt on the fact that 

 the starch grains in dextrin are not all desfroyed, as many suppose, and 

 that they can be readily detected in a powder adulterated with dextrin. 

 However, the microscope would show it as starch and not as dextrin. 

 Another point was that the white dextrin is made from potato starch, 

 while the yellow grade comes from corn starch. The same member 

 had a specimen of powdered senega which had been mixed with starch. 



Frank Davis reported that all the senega he had examined was free 

 from starch. He pointed out the similarity existing between powdered 

 senega and powdered fenugreek seed. 



o 



Leavenworth Microscopical Society. 



Aug. 7, i88q. — Prof. Lighton exhibited his apparatus for combining 

 oblique with direct illumination, and some fine effects were obtained in 

 the examination of diatoms and bugs. Dr. Bidwell showed a Cimcx 

 lectularius and Phthirius pubis. The nits of the latter were also 

 shown, and one of them was mounted with the hair to which it was 

 clinging. A one-eighth-inch dry objective of Midler's, Germany, a re- 

 cent acquisition of Dr. Bidwell's, was also exhibited and compared 

 with other objectives. 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Hypnotism : Its History and Developitient. By Fredrik Bjorn- 

 strom, M. D. The Humboldt Publishing Co., New York. 8°, pp. 



126. Paper, 30c. 



Last August over one hundred and fifty " Savants of incontestable au- 

 thority " met in Paris to discuss the progress and development of the 

 mysterious agency known as " Hypnotism," and as a result of their 

 deliberations the subject has entered the domain of study, and evidently 

 has come to stay. The author of the present work is well qualified to 

 write on the subject, and has covered its history, effects, morality, uses, 

 abuses, and bibliography. 



Homer's Iliad, Books I- III, with Vocabulary. By Thomas D. Sey- 

 mour. 12 . Ginn & Co., Boston. Price, $1.35. 



Students of the classics who are seeking an introduction to the Iliad 

 will not fail to find in Prof. Seymour's edition of Homer a very inter- 

 esting and profitable medium. The text here given is that of Homeri 

 Ilias edidit Gulielmus Dindoi-f : editio qtiinta correctior qua?n 

 curavit C. Hentze. Leipzig, 1884. 



An introduction, simplified and enlarged from '•'•Introduction to the 

 language and Verse of Homer " by the same editor, is included, 

 treating of the various Homeric peculiarities of poetry and dialect. 

 The story of the Iliad is also given, being a condensation of the twenty- 

 four books. A commentary, adapted to the use of schools, occupies 



