34 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [February, 



The armor of the long scale is a thin horny covering usually of an 

 oval shape, tapering considerably at the smaller end ; but the insect will 

 conform its covering to the shape of the object from which it draws its 

 nourishment. 



The principal thing I wish to call attention to in this slide is the 

 sucking mouth parts, which consist of a bundle of four hair-like tubes 

 that penetrate deeply into the tissues of the host plant or fruit, and once 

 inserted can never after be removed by the coccide, and if removed by 

 violence the insect is powerless to reinsert them and dies of starvation. 

 This particular insect, a female, was taken from an orange with the view 

 of attempting to preserve these slender tubes with it ; and with only a 

 few have I been able to remove them as perfect as this one. The in- 

 sects pass through two molts, at different stages of their existence ; and 

 soon after the last one the females are impregnated by the male, and 

 soon reach their full size, about .11 inch. They lay their eggs under 

 their scale armor, and, as they are deposited in regular order, the body 

 of the female becomes much reduced in size. 



The males only are furnished with wings, and their sexual organs 

 consist, in part, of the long stout spine at the end of the body, by which 

 it reaches the female under the scale. The armor or covering of these 

 insects consists of a sort of hardened wax, quite tough, and therefore 

 impervious to most liquids. It resists the action of oils and of bisul- 

 phide of carbon, and is insoluble in acids or quite strong alkaline 

 solutions ; so it will be seen that the long scale is rather a difficult pest 

 to get rid of other than by its natural enemies. — E. S. Coutant. 



Skin of Chameleon. — -The shield-shaped plates composing the skin 

 are evidently laminated and refractive, and they do not lie perfectly 

 horizontal, but from end to end give a slight angle to the horizontal. 

 In this slide the plates lie lengthwise with the glass so that in the usual 

 position of the slide under the objective the degree of obliquity of illu- 

 mination to the surface of the glass being the same (say 25°) from both 

 sides, right and left, the degree of obliquity to the plates would vary by 

 twice the angle made by the plates with the horizontal. This variation 

 is the occasion of the differences in the refraction of light from the two 

 sides and the consequent inarked difference in color ; just as in the lami- 

 nated opal the hue varies with the angle of illumination and observa- 

 tion. If * * « will after placing the slide on the stage in the usual 

 way, rotate the stage 90° and illuminate, right and left, at the same 

 angle, he will see no special difference in the hue of the given plate or 

 plates ; since the angle of illumination with the plates in that position 

 is the same right and left. — A. T. L. 



Section of Human Skin. — The pigmented cells are situated under 

 the outside skin or epidermis. A burn or blister or some such injury 

 may remove some of this pigment and leave a white scar. Some tribes 

 in Africa have the habit when in grief of rubbing the skin of the fore- 

 head until rubbed or blistered away ; this results in white or nearly 

 white spots or marks, — ^\ G. S. 



Supra Renal Capsule. — This body like the tonsil seems to be one 

 of the mistakes of Moses. It appears to be of no earthly use when 

 healthy, but makes no end of trouble when degeneration is pleased to 

 occur. If it were more externally situated so that it could be promptly 

 removed at the first symptom of nihilism, we might be much happier. 

 — S. G. S. 



