132 Bibliographical Notices. 
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
Recent Foraminifera. A Descriptive Catalogue of Specimens dredged 
by the US. Fish Commission Steamer * Albatross’ By James M. 
Fruint, M.D., U.S.N., &c., Smithsonian Institution, U.S. National 
Museum. from the Report of the U.S. National Museum for 
1897, pp. 249-349, with 80 plates. S8vo. Washington: Govern- 
ment Printing Office, 1899. 
Tue author, who is the “ Honorary Curator, Division of Medicine, 
U.S. National Museum,” proves himself to be a genuine naturalist 
by his able treatment of these Foraminifera, their specific identifi- 
eation and the relative value of their varieties. For some years he 
has been collecting from the bottom material brought up by the 
‘ Albatross’ at about 225 stations, chiefly in the North Atlantic, 
with others from the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, and a few 
from the Pacific. 
The abundance and excellence of the illustrations, which are 
wonderfully arranged with artistic neatness and scientific exactness, 
present an important feature in opening the volume. “ A uniform 
enlargement of about 15 diameters has been maintained in the 
figures .... useful to mark distinctly the relative size of the 
objects.” 
In the Museum the specimens are described as being mounted 
with an arrangement admirably suited for the convenience of 
microscopists and others. It is thus described at pages 251 and 
252 :— 
‘The exhibition series has been mounted expressly for public 
display. ‘he individuals of each species are attached in various 
attitudes to the bottom of the shallow cavity of a concave blackened 
disk of brass. For security each disk is provided with a removable 
fenestrated brass cap having a top of thin glass. These disks are 
arranged in concentric rows upon a large circular metal plate, 
which occupies the place of the stage of an ordinary microscope. 
The circular plate is given both a rotary and a too-and-fro move- 
ment by means of a friction-roller and a rack-and-pinion, so that all 
4he mounts may be successively brought under the microscope. The 
specimens thus arranged are enclosed in a box having a glass top, 
through which the objective of a microscope projects.” Each of the 
illnstrative plates contains from one to seven of these mounts very 
carefully photographed. 
The concise and yet satisfactory definitions of families, sub- 
families, genera, and 231 species (pages 258-264) are ably designed 
to assist the student in learning the history of these beautiful and 
truly interesting protozoans. 
The structure and development of these Microzoa are briefly 
described (pages 252-256), and at page 257 details are given of the 
methods of sorting and arranging the specimens and more especially 
of making and mounting sections of such as are required. 
