34: 



THE AMEKICAN MONTHLY 



[February, 



1. Scirrhus Mammae. Dr. George 

 O. Mitchell, A. M. Ross remarks 

 about this that it is " too thick to be 

 examined with very high power, but 

 there seems to be no variation from 

 the form of hard cancer of female 

 breast." 



2. Zoophyte. Wm. Farnell. It is 

 named Cellar ia avicularia^ which 

 seems to be a mistake. It is a good 

 mount, but the specimen is not so clean 

 as it might be made by thorough wash- 

 ing in the manner we described some 

 time ago. 



3 . Transverse section of the ovary of 

 Cactus grandijlora. Dr. J. Krutt- 

 schnitt. Illustrating his investiga- 

 tions of the process of fertilization. 



4. A slide by F. A. Chase, who de- 

 sires to learn the name of a specimen 

 of which he had lost the record. M. 

 A. Booth says it is the scales of some 

 plant, probably Tillandsia^ not T. 

 usneoides . 



5. Section of Ivory Nut. G. W. 

 Hubbard. 



6 . Foram i nifera — Orbitolites com- 

 planata and O. duplex. R. Hitch- 

 cock. This slide was added to replace 

 the missing one. The specimens are 

 from the "Challenger" collections, 

 upon which Dr. B. W. .Carpenter's 

 recently published monograph was 

 founded. 



American Society of Micro- 

 SCOPISTS. — The Proceedings of the 

 sixth annual meeting of this Society, 

 which was held at Chicago last Au- 

 gust, have been issued in a volume of 

 275 pages. The editorial work has 

 been well done and has been pushed 

 rapidly or the volume would not now 

 be ready. We congratulate the Soci- 

 ety on the efficient services rendered 

 by the Committee on Publication. 



The articles published are numer- 

 ous, some of them possessing consid- 

 erable scientific value. The first is 

 the address of the President, Prof. A. 

 McCalla, on " The Verification of Mi- 

 croscopic Observation," which covers 

 a wide field. It would require too 

 much space to allude to the articles 



in succession, but some of them will 

 be noticed elsewhere in these col- 

 umns. Perhaps the most valuable 

 part of the volume, from a scientific 

 point of view, is that which relates to 

 the ruling of lines upon glass with a 

 diamond — a subject which has been 

 already brought before the readers of 

 this Journal in considerable detail, 

 and the whole of that portion treating 

 of the standard micrometer "A," 

 which has been subjected to critical 

 study by Prof. W. A. Rogers with 

 results which are tabulated and fully 

 reported. 



The volume is by far the largest 

 and most interesting yet published by 

 the Society. The work is so well 

 done that we are not disposed to offef 

 a word of criticism ; but it seems 

 doubtful if the long report of the 

 "conversazione," especially the list 

 of objects exhibited, adds to the value 

 or interest of the volume, while it cer- 

 tainly does to the cost. 



Copies can be obtained from Prof. 

 D. S. Kellicott, of Buffalo, N. Y. 

 The price we do not know. 

 o 



The Standard Micrometer. — 

 This micrometer, now belonging to 

 the American Society of Microscop- 

 ists, is held by the Ti-easurer and Cus- 

 todian of the Society, who is author- 

 ized to lend it only to persons "of 

 eminent ability." Three copies, how- 

 ever, are to be made by Prof. Rogers, 

 any one of which can be obtained by 

 any person by depositing $10.00 with 

 the Treasurer and paying the charges 

 of transportation to and from the 

 Treasurer's office. In this way mi- 

 croscopists will be enabled to com- 

 pare their micrometers with the 

 standard. 



It is the duty of the Custodian to 

 make comparisons of all micrometers 

 sent to him for that purpose, or to 

 have such comparisons made by a 

 comj^etent person, charging a reason- 

 able fee for the work. 



The charges for comparisons should 

 be fixed at an early day, and it is to 

 be hoped the work will be placed in 



