1884.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



159 



at the beginning of this year he was doubt- 

 ful of his ability to carry on his business 

 long. We regret to learn that necessity 

 has compelled him to make the sacrifice 

 of his business ; but it has gone into good 

 hands, and will hereafter be conducted by 

 the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company. 



— Mr. A. W. Bennett has investigated 

 the reproduction of zygnemaceae, and finds 

 that there are indications of a sexual char- 

 acter in the conjugating cells, the female 

 cells being the larger in diameter and 

 length. The cell-contents in conjugation 

 always pass in the same direction. These 

 observations can be submitted to critical 

 examination by any person with a good 

 microscope and eye-piece micrometer, and 

 we commend them as worthy of atten- 

 tion. 



— Mr. G. B. Buckton, author of a ' Mon- 

 ograph of the British aphides,' describes 

 a method of mounting aphides which 

 may doubtless be advantageously applied 

 in mounting small insects. It is given as 

 follows in "Ck^ Journ. R. Micr. Soc: — 



' Five or a dozen spots of fluid Canada 

 balsam should be dotted on a slide from 

 the head of a pin, and by means of a hair- 

 pencil as many living insects transferred 

 to them. "The specimens at once ad- 

 here, and if the spots are small the in- 

 sects spread out their limbs naturally, 

 with a view to escape. They may be fixed 

 on their backs or otherwise, according to 

 the views desired." 



'A very thin glass cover, or, if very 

 high magnifying powers are wanted, a 

 small disk of clear mica, is laid over the 

 insects, and then one or more drops of 

 the fluid balsam are delivered from a glass 

 rod at one of the sides of these covers. 

 The balsam runs slowly under by capil- 

 larity, and it drives all the air before it, 

 the small weight of the cover assisting it 

 to spread, until the whole area is filled.' 

 * * * ' To spread the wings of a small 

 insect, the above-mentioned small dots 

 may be made in a row. The belly of the 

 specimen is applied to the middle spot, 

 and by a bristle one wing may be applied 

 to the dot on the one side and the other 

 wing to the third dot.' 



— We are requested to give place to the 

 following notice : — 



'At the meeting of the American Med- 

 ical Association held at Washington in 

 May last, an Amendment to Regulation 

 ii was adopted, which provides that — 



" Membership in the Association shall 

 be obtainable by any member of a State 

 or County Medical Society recognized by 



the Association, upon application endorsed 

 by the President and Secretary of said 

 Society ; and shall be retained so long as 

 he shall remain in good standing in his 

 local Society, and shall pay his annual 

 dues to the Association." 



'Applications for membership, in the 

 manner specified above, accompanied 

 with Five Dollars for annual dues, 

 should be sent directly to the Treasurer, 

 Dr. Richard J. Dunglison, Lock Box 1274, 

 Philadelphia, Pa., on receipt of which the 

 weekly Journal of the Association will be 

 forwarded for one year to such member. 

 'William B. Atkinson, M. D., 



' Permanent Secretary.' 



— It will be seen from our advertising 

 columns that Dr. H. H. Chase not only 

 sells some good objectives, but also now 

 offers some test objects for them, mounted 

 in a medium having an index of refraction 

 of 2.42. This should soon settle the ques- 

 tion of the dotted appearance of Ainphi- 

 pleura pelhccida. 



— Scarcely do we hear of Mr. Sexton's 

 retirement from the microscope business 

 than Mr. E. Gundlach sends us a circu- 

 lar announcing a new business connection, 

 whereby he will be enabled to continue 

 the manufacture of objectives. He prom- 

 ises ' first class and strictly uniform work 

 at reasonable prices.' We wish him the 

 success he merits. A new priced cata- 

 logue has been issued by the Gundlach 

 Optical Co., of Rochester. 



— An Allegheny physician, having his 

 suspicions aroused that there was some 

 trick about the living things found in the 

 water on the South Side when examined 

 under a microscope, found that a peddler 

 of microscopes had led to all the trouble. 

 The attention of Dr. Shillito, of Allegheny, 

 was called to the matter. Dr. Shillito 

 possesses one of the finest microscopes in 

 the country, and is an expert in all mi- 

 croscopical matters. He examined one of 

 the peddler's plates and found that the 

 ' wrigglers ' were what are known as sour- 

 paste lizards. These creatures, invisible 

 to the naked eye, are generated by sour- 

 paste. The paste can be dried and kept 

 for years. A drop of water will dissolve 

 it and reanimate the thousands of lizards 

 that it contains. The peddler was hunted 

 up and forced to divulge his secret. He had 

 in his vest pocket a small bottle filled 

 with sour paste in liquid form. On enter- 

 ing an office he would offer to show the 

 impurities in a drop of water. The drop 

 would be brought to him on his glass 

 plate. In the most natural manner pos- 



