1881.] 



MICKOSCOPICAL JOUENAL. 



239 



To THE Editor: — I see in the No- 

 vember number of your Journal that, 

 while throwing missiles at Prof. C. H. Sto- 

 well's new magazine, you give a glancing, 

 shot at " Grey Beard." Permit me to say 

 in your JOURNAL, on behalf of the poor 

 old man, " Ne "Jupiter quidem omnibus 

 placet." 



Geo. C. Taylor. 



[The question is, whether a scientific 

 journal is intended to please or to instruct. 

 We have our own opinions regarding this 

 subject, and, as a matter of principle, we 

 shall still condemn Prof. Stowell's maga- 

 zine until it is made more serious, digni- 

 fied, and more creditable to American 

 journalism. — Ed.] 



— Van Tiegham has observed Bacteria 

 living and forming spores at tempera- 

 tures as high as from sixty to seventy- 

 four degrees C, although the highest limit 

 for their growth has been stated as about 

 fifty-five degrees C. The nutritive fluid 

 used in these experiments was an infusion 

 of beans ; but Miquel has also described 

 a filamentous Bacillus in water, which 

 supported a temperature of seventy de- 

 grees. It should be noticed that at seven- 

 ty degrees C. water is scalding hot. 



— A letter from Mr. Eug. Mauler calls 

 our attention to a misunderstanding which 

 led us to state, on page 195, that he used 

 a blue cover-glass to secure a monochro- 

 matic light. The cover-glass is of the 

 ordinary kind, but a piece of ordinary thin 

 blue glass is cemented to the slide, upon 

 which the diatoms are mounted ; thus the 

 light is transmitted through the colored 

 glass before it reaches the diatoms. 



— Our Little Ones is a monthly maga- 

 zine published by the Russell Publishing 

 Company, of Boston, full of good, fresh, 

 healthful stories for young people. The 

 illustrations are excellent, well-drawn, and 

 calculated to interest and amuse the 

 children. The stories are instructive and 

 not extravagant — which cannot be said of 

 all the stories now publislied in juvenile 

 magazines. It gives us pleasure to com- 

 mend Our Little Ones as a suitable 

 magazine for children to read. 



— Dr. C. Seller recommends as an im- 

 bedding mixture for cutting sections, a 



mixture of two parts of paraffin and one 

 of mutton tallow. He states that this 

 mixture will not shrink away from the tis- 

 sues or from the wall of the well, as does 

 paraffin alone. 



— A number of orders for slides of adul- 

 terations have been received. None have 

 been filled as yet, for the reason that the 

 examinations of articles of food, mention- 

 ed some time ago, have been temporarily 

 interrupted. However, the sets of speci- 

 mens are nearly complete, and will be sent 

 to subscribers as soon as they can be made 

 ready. 



— In the November number, in the ar- 

 ticle of Prof. Birge, on page 210, the word 

 "titanus," on the fifth line, should be 

 " tetanus." Prof. Birge is at the Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin, not of Missouri. 



— Mr. Vorce, of Cleveland,- states that 

 the water-bear Macrobiotus, one of the 

 Tardigrada, has recently been found in 

 the water-supply of that city, but, he adds, 

 much to our surprise, that it seems not to 

 have been mentioned in any microscopical 

 journals published in this country from 

 The Lens to the present time, and he in- 

 fers that it is not common here. 



We have frequently met with it in collec- 

 tions from various localities during the 

 past three years, and we have a very dis- 

 tinct recollection of some experiments 

 made some time ago. Having a good col- 

 lection of water-bears, and knowing their 

 remarkable power of reviving after being 

 dried, we carefully prepared some speci- 

 mens on slides, with the dirt and debris 

 in which they lived, and allowed the water 

 to evaporate spontaneously. After many 

 days, when we wanted to exhibit our speci- 

 mens, we moistened the dried mass on 

 the glass, but no Tardigrada revived. Yet 

 we have lately seen an account of some 

 experiments which seemed to prove that 

 these animals really do revive after dessic- 

 cation. We do not doubt the fact, but we 

 do say that the conditions of dessiccation — 

 perhaps the rapidity with which it takes 

 place, or the nature of the debris which 

 may sometimes prevent perfect drying — 

 influences the result to some extent, 



— A hornet's nest is said to be the best 

 poHsher in the world for glass lenses. 

 But you want to do your polishing when 

 the hornet is not around to help you. For 

 what shall it profit a man if he polish a 

 thousand glass lenses in a day and one 

 hornet catch him at it. — Burlington 

 Hawkeye. 



