1902] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 35 
minutes in 95 per cent alcohol to which some drops of 
methyl-blue, enough to give the aleohol a deep blue tinge, 
had been added. After this they were transferred to 
absolute alcohol, xylol, and finally mounted in Canada 
Balsam. On examination the slides showed that while 
the cushion-shaped base of P. naiadum stained a bright 
red, the tissue of the hostplant, Phyllospadix, was stain- 
ed blue, as were the chromatophores and cell-contents of 
P. naiadum. In some cases, where the slides had re- 
mained longer than five minutes in the methyl-blue the 
young fronds emerging from the cushion-shaped bases 
were stained purple. The ribbon was fixed on the slides 
with albumen, and floated out in water and placed on the © 
top of the water-bath where the slides remained till dry. 
As regards mounting media, dilute glycerin jelly and 
Farrant’s Medium gave excellent results. While the 
former can be used to great advantage in preparing sur- 
face views, the latter is to be preferred where razor sec- 
tions are to be mounted. It appears to have a clearing 
action on the tissues. Great care must be taken to wash 
out all corrosive sublimate in alcohol to which some pot- 
assium iodide is added, while hardening preparatory to 
cutting, since even the slightest trace of mercuric chlor- 
ide will after a time attack the eeu medium and 
destroy the preparation. 
Progress of Microscopy in 1901. 
F, SHILLINGTON SCALES. 
Microscopy is largely the handmaiden of other sciences, 
and the wide fields of research covered by the term have 
been so much specialized, that a review even of a single 
year’s work is an impossibility in the space at our dis- 
posal, In Zoology, Botany, and Medicine the use of the 
microscope plays an increasingly important part, whilst 
its applications to manufactures and industrial uses be- 
