156 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Jun 
All the comparisons were made directly from the slides, 
and, in fact, a better judgment can be formed by obsery- 
ing a considerable portion of each slide. I have, however, 
had a number of photo-micrographs made by Mr. F, EH. 
Marcy the university photographer. These show the crys- 
tals magnified seventy-five diameters and give a very good 
illustration of the variations in the various samples. I 
have added also photographs of samples from specimens 
of white arsenic in the chemistry and pharmacy labora- 
tories of the university, because they show a great varia- 
tion in the percentage of crystals, though the particles 
are nearly of the same size.—Kans. Univ. Quarterly. 
‘Sketch of Thomas Henry Huxley.” 
By T. Chalmers Mitchell of London. 297 pp. 8 vo, 6 plates including 
portraits of Huxley, Darwin, Charles Lyell and Jos. Dalton Hooker. 
Huxley was born May 4, 1825 and died June 29, 1895. 
From 17 to 20, he studied medicine and, in 1846, sailed 
on Her Majesty’s Gun-ship, Rattlesnake for the Austra- 
lian seas. Though only its surgeon, he became in reali- 
ty its Naturalist and through the study of minute forms 
became at this early age a skilled microscopist. This 
book, therefore, appeals to every ownerof an instrument. 
Besides, it is published by Putman’s Sons in their best 
style at a fair price ($1.50). Huxley, at 60, told the boys 
in the Royal College of Science that when he was of their 
age he had to have his microscope lashed to the mast to 
get a glimpse of the forms that he was exhibiting to them 
in slides prepared at Naples. He said, however, that the 
difficulties of the past were often exaggerated, that with 
good light and a good lens together with the ship tolera- 
bly steady he never failed to get all the facts he sought, 
that the great thing was the good supply of specimens 
day after day because delicate oceanic forms deteriorated 
so rapidly. He did not mind the cramped quarters, the 
tiny cabin, the jostle of ship’s crew, the absence of books, 
tee a eed adh te ts rte 
