158 Miscellaneous. 
MR. HECKL’S METHOD OF CLOSING GLASS JARS. 
The specimens of fish in the Museum of Vienna which are kept in 
spirits are inclosed in glass jars covered with a flat glass disc ; these 
discs are made at the same time as the bottles and sent in with them 
from the Bohemian glass-houses. They and the surface of the lips of 
the jars are ground together so as exactly to fit each other, and 
they have an oblique edge shelving towards the inner side, so that 
when they are placed on the top of the jar there is a small triangular 
space all round between the upper edge of the disk and the upper 
outer edge of the lip of the jar, which is left to hold a quantity of 
the composition by which they are luted. This composition con- 
sists of six ounces of white wax and three drachms each of sper- 
maceti and hog’s lard mixed together; and Mr. Heckl, who has made 
many experiments, assured me, that if it was well applied between 
the two surfaces and filled into the triangular space above referred 
to, not the least evaporation was observable in bottles that had been 
set aside for the purpose for more than two years, though some 
of them had been set upside down to bring the spirit in connexion 
with the mixture. Indeed so much confidence has Mr. Heckl in the 
method, that he has had the disk pierced with a small central slit to 
enable him to support his specimens with silk, only having a small 
concavity ground out of the upper surface of the disk round the hole, 
which he fills with this composition. There is a specimen jar of the 
kind in the British Museum.—J. E. Gray. 
STANDS FOR BIRDS, &c. 
In the Vienna Museum the newer specimens of Birds and the 
smaller mammalia are placed on stands with oval bases; this is far 
superior to the round or square bases which are usually adopted in 
English and French collections, as it gives a larger space for the 
label without occupying more room, which is often much wanted, 
and at the same time prevents the birds being knocked against each 
other by accident.—J. E. Gray. 
THE GENUS GYNAMED4A, GRAY. 
The body which I described under this head in Proceedings of the 
Zoological Society, is evidently only the basal joint of the body of 
the English species of Comatula, the impressed dots on the convex 
part being the scars left by the dorsal claspers; and the single open- 
ing and the cavity in the flat part are doubtless analogous to the 
roundish or five-rayed cavity in the joints of the stem of the Enir- 
mitis. This fact I have verified by comparing the specimens I de- 
scribed with one of those joints separated from a complete speci- 
men, but it is curious how the two specimens which were described 
should have been found so completely isolated in the sand; for I had 
great difficulty, even after soaking the specimen in water for some days, 
