86 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Mar 
MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETIES. 
Royal Microscopical Society.—At a meeting on Oct. 17, 
the President, referring tothe donation of Prof. Percival’s 
work, ‘‘Agricultural Botany,”’’ said he could speak to the 
book being original both as to text and drawings, which 
was noteworthy in these days. It was an extremely valu- 
able contribution to the subject of agricultural botany. 
Dr. Hebb brought before the notice of the meeting sam- 
ples of stains for microscopicspecimens prepared by Messrs 
Burroughs, Wellcome, and Co. The stains were in solid 
form, each “‘soloid,’’ as they are termed, containing a defi- 
nite amount of the reagent. The advantages of this form 
of preparation are simplicity and economy. 
Messrs R. and J. Beck exhibiteda new pattern student’s 
microscope. It was of the continental form, and was chief- 
ly noticeable for its cheapness, which was attained without 
sacrifice of quality by adopting an improved method of 
manufacture. It was called the ‘‘London”’ microscope, and 
had rack-and-pinion coarse adjustment, perfect microme- 
ter-screw fine adjustment, vulcanite top stage iris dia- 
phragm in sliding tube, and spiral substage fitting, Mr. F. 
W. Watson Baker gave an exhibition of slides and models 
illustrating the structure and developmentof the skin. Mr. 
Vezey said the society was greatly indebted to Mr. Wat- 
son Baker for giving this very excellent exhibition at com- 
paratively short notice. Mr. Karop said he had only been | 
able to glance at a few of the specimens exhibited, and he 
regretted there was no one present to discuss the subject, 
because several new points had recently been recognized 
by histologists in the structure of the skin, and it was rather 
a pity that the opportunity should be lost of having these 
demonstrated by someone who had made a study of this 
important and complicated tissue system. Mr. Vezey re- 
ported the death of a very well-known Fellow, Mr. Rich- 
ard Smith, since the last meeting. He had devoted his at- 
tention to astudy of diatoms, and was continually devising 
newcontrivances. He had also done some good work in pho- | 
tomicrography. He had likewise made useful researches . 
