1887.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 119 
method and stained in borax carmine. The sections were most beautifully cut, but 
many were so thin that, as the secretary pointed out, they would not hold the stain. 
Dr. Allen described the method which he had seen at Cambridge, and which is so 
familiar, it is not worth while describing. 
‘The eye’ was chosen asthe subject for the next meeting on the Igth of May. 
Jay Lo Smira,: Secr. 
Oo—— 
Essex County, N. J. 
The regular semi-monthly meeting was held at the residence of Dr. Morgan W. 
Ayres, Upper Montclair, on May tIgth, eight members present. 
The subject chosen for discussion ‘ The eye’ was described by Dr. F. R. Cham- 
bers, who illustrated his remarks with a model. 
He called attention to the different tissues, and in a few well chosen words described 
their functions. Mr. Vanderpoel had a number of diagrams illustrating binocular vi- 
sion, and by the aid of a pin hole in a card, showed that the image was received on 
the retina in an inverted position. 
There was a lively discussion on the aati as some of the members could not un- 
derstand the position of the retina, having been misled by confusing diagrams in 
some ofthe text books. 
Dr. Allen showed a fine section of the lens, cornea, retina, and the pigment layer 
of the retina. Smith showed rods and cones, meibomian glands, healed corneal ul- 
cer with serrated cells, infiltration of lens with morgagnian fluid. Cornea with gran- 
ulation tissue in wound made by needle, in the operation for glaucoma, with incar- 
ceration of the iris, section of posterior half of the eye with optic nerve entrance, 
and spreading of the retina. Mr. Woolman exhibited a number of sections. It was 
resolved to continue the subject to next meeting on the 3d proximo. 
Jay L. Smirn, Secr. 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Bulletin of the lowa Agricultural College, from the Botanical Department. By 
Byron D. Halsted. (pp. 66). Cedar Rapids. Nov., 1886. 
This bulletin is a good-sized pamphlet, in which the writer has given an outline of 
work carried on by college classes during the year of 1886. It gives a full account of 
the college curriculum in 1 botany, which we will pass over, and contains the record of 
the results of observations by the classes. Among these we may mention various ex- 
periments upon germination and growth, plant movement, flesh eating in case of 
plants with perfoliate leaves suggested, variations in forms of leaves, observation on 
useless plants, calendar of trees and shrubs, and a large variety of other allied topics. 
While in the bulletin many interesting observations are recorded, we regard its chief 
though by no means sole value, to lie in the interest evidenced by it of ‘study on the 
part of the students who contributed to it, and the stimulus to such study they have in 
the knowledge that their work goes on record. We should be glad to know if the 
system proves valuable, year after year, from an educational standpoint as well as for 
the facts contributed regarding plants. 
Elementary Microscopical Technology. Part I. By Frank L. James. (pp. 187). 
St. Louis. 1887. 
We have noticed, from time to time, the excellent articles from Prof. James upon 
microscopical technique. These have been appearing, from time to time, in the .S¢. 
Louis Medical and Surgical Journal, They are now collected to form the first portion 
of a work. In the part t before us the author deals with ‘the technical history of a slide 
from the crude materials to the finished mount.’ The number of books which claim 
to be manuals of microscopical treatment are very numerous. We should be afraid 
to guess how many. Some of them leave very little to be desired in their particular 
line, but most of them are written with the understanding that the user will have had 
some experience to start upon. Professor James has assumed, to start with, that his 
reader has no knowledge of this technique, even the simplest, and works out his 
volume for the benefit of such readers. We confess ourselves unable to decide upon 
its merits from this standpoint. We do not see how any one could fail, using it care- 
fully, to become a good histologist, even without a practised one to imitate at first, and 
yet mankind are sometimes very obtuse. We should like to see the experiment tried. 
