1880.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOUEKAL. 



17 



ment that I disavow the use of the expres- 

 sion "-\-iSo°" (as likewise " i8o°-|-") as 

 applied to objective angle of aperture, and 

 deny ever having written or printed the 

 same in either form, otherwise than to 

 point out the error of its use. 

 Yours respectfully, 



Rob't B. Tolles. 



NOTES. 



— No account of the meeting of the 

 American Society of Microscopists, at 

 Buffalo, has yet appeared, and the synop- 

 sis which we intend to give is crowded 

 out of this issue. The presidential ad- 

 dress, by Dr. Ward, was very interesting ; 

 and we will publish abstracts from it in 

 our next number. 



— The expert evidence which has been 

 offered during the course of the trial of 

 Mr. Hayden, at New Haven, for murder, 

 possesses some features of interest to 

 microscopists. After the mass of evi- 

 dence, which has been given by the scien- 

 tific gentlemen on both sides, it will be 

 strange if any jury of ordinary intelligence 

 can decide what is right or wrong. Really, 

 there is much confusion where there 

 should be none at all ; whether the micros- 

 copist is or is not able to positively iden- 

 tify human blood, or any other kind of 

 blood, is not a matter of opinion, but of 

 fact and experience ; and there should be 

 no dilly-dally about it. In our next issue 

 we will review the evidence, and show 

 how easily a man can make assertions 

 under oath, which, after more thorough 

 study, he would discover to be unfounded. 



— In preparing diatoms z'n siiu., Mr. 

 Paul Petit proceeds as follows : In order 

 to destroy the cellulose, the diatoms are 

 placed in strong nitric acid for twelve 

 hours; they are then washed, dried, and slow- 

 ly burned on the cover-glass. To mount 

 them, oil of lavender is dropped upon the 

 cover-glass, which is then inverted upon 

 a drop of balsam on the slide, and the 

 slide is warmed in the usual manner. Oil 

 of lavender is the only medium which Mr. 

 Petit has found, that will thoroughly dis- 

 place the air in such valves as those of 

 Melosira numtdaria and certain others. 

 It is a good plan to mount some frustules 

 cleaned in the ordinary way, along with 

 those in situ. 



— Endamoeba Blatta. Prof, Leidy de- 

 scribes this organism as follows : 



"Endamceba. 



General character and habit of Amoeba; 

 composed of colorless, homog'eneous, 

 granular protoplasm, in the ordinary nor- 

 mal active condition without distinction 

 of ectosarc and endosarc ; with a distinct 

 nucleated nucleus, but ordinarily with 

 neither contractile vesicle nor vacuoles. 



Endamceba blatt.*:. 



Eine art Proteus. Seibold : Beitr. 

 z. Naturges. d. wirb. Thiere, 1839. 

 fide Stein. 

 Amoben/ortii. Stein : Organismus d. 



Infusionsthiere, 1867, II, 845. 

 Amoeba Blatta. Biitschli : Zeits. f. 

 wis. Zoologie, 1878, xxx. 278, Taf. 

 XV., Fig. 26. 

 Initial form globular passing into spher- 

 oidal, oval, or variously lobate forms, 

 mostly clavate and moving with the broad- 

 er pole in advance. Protoplasm finely 

 granular, and when in motion more or less 

 distinctly striate. Nucleus spherical, 

 granular, with a large nucleolus. Distinct 

 food particles commonlv few or none. 

 Size of globular forms 0.054""" to 0.075°"" 

 in diameter ; elongated forms 0.075"^"^ by 

 0.06™"^ to 0.15"'™ by 0.09""" Parasitic in 

 the large intestine of Blatta orientalis. 

 The Endamceba blattce affords a good 

 example of a prijnitive, active nucleated 

 organic corpuscle, or a so-called organic 

 cell without a cell wall. In the encysted 

 condition it would be a complete nucleated 

 organic cell. Endamoeba may be recom- 

 mended as a convenient illustration of 

 a primitive form of the organic cell on ac- 

 count of its comparatively ready access." 

 This amoeboid has been described by 

 Prof. Biitschli under the name of Amoeba 

 Blatta, but as it has no contractile vesicle 

 nor any differentiation of endosarc and 

 ectosarc, it is not an Amoeba; and it is un- 

 like Protamcebd, for it has nucleus. 



— A bunch of Sphagnum, which Prof. 

 Leidy recently (June, 1879,) examined, 

 contained no less than forty species of 

 Rhizopods belonging to the genera Dijfflu- 

 gia, Nebela, Arcella, Heleopera, Quad- 

 rula, Centropyxis, Hyalosphenia, Eu- 

 glypha, Assulina, Sphenoderia, Cyphod- 

 eria, Trinema, Placocista, Pseudodifflu- 

 gia, Clathrulina, Hyalolampe, Acantho- 

 cystis, Amphizonclla and Amoeba. The 

 list is given in full in the Proceedings of 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia. We mention the various 

 genera for the benefit of those readers who 

 may be interested in studying Rhizopcds. 

 With the Rhizopods were associated 



