34 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[February, 



EDITORIAL. 



— This number of the Journal 

 will be sent to many who are not 

 subscribers, in the hope of inducing 

 them to send in their names, and one 

 dollar for the current volume. 



Every new subscriber contributes 

 just so much, not only to the support 

 of the Journal, but also toward its 

 excellence and value, by enabling the 

 publisher to spend more money for 

 the illustration of valuable articles. 

 We solicit the support of every man 

 who is a member of a microscopical 

 society. If we could obtain this, we 

 would ask for nothing more. 



— We are often led to regret the 

 narrow scope of our periodical, since 

 it sometimes prevents us from giving 

 reviews of the most interesting scien- 

 tific pamphlets that we receive. The 

 Bulletin (No. 3) of the Illinois State 

 Laboratory of Natural History, at 

 Normal, 111., which has lately reached 

 us is one of these. The first article, 

 by the able director of the Labora- 

 tory, Prof. S. A. Forbes, " On some 

 Interactions of Organisms " gives a 

 general view of the relations that are 

 observed betv/een animals and plants, 

 their food and surroundings. The 

 succeeding articles treat of special 

 divisions of the same subject ; thus, 

 we find one on " The Food of Fishes," 

 another on " The Food of Young 

 Fishes," another on " The Food of 

 Birds " and then follow some notes 

 on the " Habits of Predaceous Beet- 

 les " and on " Insectivorous Coleop- 

 tera." 



Binding. — Subscribers who wish 

 to have their volumes bound will find 

 an advertisement of Messrs. D. & J. 

 Sadlier & Co., in another place, with 

 whom we have made arrangements as 

 there announced. The binding they 

 have already done for us is both dur- 

 able and attractive. 



ViBRATiLE Cilia in the Intes- 

 tine. — In Zoologischer Anzeiger we 



ii 



find the following, which seems worthy 

 of careful attention. It is by Dr. R. 

 Blanchard, of Paris : 



Several observers have recently 

 proved that there are cells ^ith vibra- 

 tile cilia in the stomach. I am in a 

 position to add to these observa- 

 tions and even to extend them to the 

 intestines, more especially to the 

 rectum of various animals. 



In 1878, during a short sojourn at 

 the University of Bonn, at the labor- 

 atory of Prof. Leydig, I had occasion 

 to ascertain, in several instances, the 

 presence of a continuous lining of 

 vibratile epithelium over the entire 

 surface of the rectum of tritons. As 

 in the case noticed by Dr. Max Brown, 

 in Zool. Anzeiger, No. 69, this epith- 

 elial covering presents the same 

 aspect as that of the pharynx. This 

 peculiarity of structure is shown very 

 well in pieces prepared with osmic; 

 acid (i-ioo). 



Doubtless it will not be withoul 

 interest to remark that this observa- 

 tion was made in the month of May, 

 upon animals captured two or three 

 days previously, and in which the 

 functions of digestion took place with 

 great activity. JHI 



— o — ^^ n 



Instruments and their Use. — ■ 

 The Zeitschrift fiir Instrumenten- 

 kunde is a new periodical the first 

 number of which has just reached us, 

 and for which we are indebted to the 

 well-known house of B. Westermann 

 and Company, of this city, who are 

 the agents for this publication in the 

 United States. 



As its name indicates, the publica- 

 tion is devoted to the description of 

 instruments and instructions for their 

 proper use. It is, so far as we know, 

 the only periodical publication of 

 the kind in the world, and no 

 person can question the real utility 

 of a work " which is exclusively 

 dedicated to the resuscitation of a 

 closer, fruitful intercourse between 

 the representatives of science and 

 those of the mechanic arts, as also 

 to the critique of instruments." 



