

k 





Dahlia Microscopical Club. 213 



may be prepared in considerable extent with great ease. Both sur- 

 faces are covered with endothelium. If the outer be brushed over 

 before staining with silver nitrate, the endothelium on the interior 

 of the blood-vessels is very beautifully shown ; and the preparations 

 made in this way are more satisfactory than those got by injection. 

 The blood-vessels in the membrane are numerous, of small size, and 

 arranged in a plexiform manner. They are accompanied by nerves, 

 for the most part non-mcdullated, which branch repeatedly ; and 

 from these may be traced the most delicate fibrils passing out into 

 the tissue, and running into the spaces between the connective- 

 tissue corpuscles. 



Sections illustrating Triple Staining, — Mr. B. Wills Richardson 

 exhibited (1) several sections taken from the tail of a recently born 

 kitten, (2) a cross section from the larynx of a human nine-month 

 foetus, and (3) a longitudinal section from an enlarged uvula ex- 

 cised some months previously. With all of these sections picro- 

 carmine, iodine, and malachite-green dyes were used as stains. The 

 sections were mounted in Klein's damar solution, and were illumi- 

 nated by artificial light transmitted through a thin piece of colourless 

 muffed glass, which, by diffusing the light, greatly improved the 

 appearance of stained tissues. 



Dipterous Larvce beneath the Human Skin. — Dr. Walter 6. Smith 

 exhibited some larvae, of which the following was the history : — A 

 girl, aged 12, presented herself with an ovoid swelling on the outer 

 side of the right ankle, causing her some pain and uneasiness in 

 walking. This swelling gradually shifted its position, and slowly 

 moved up the leg, thence towards the right axilla, then down to the 

 elbow, and finally settled on the back of the neck. In this situation 

 a small dark spot appeared ; an orifice formed ; and when pressure was 

 made around this opening, a white grub, nearly an inch in length, 

 protruded and escaped along with some unhealthy pus. Several other 

 similar swellings developed upon subsequent occasions under medical 

 observation; and the medical man extracted other grubs, exactly 

 similar to the first specimen. JSTo cause could be assigned for these 

 curious phenomena. The larvse were pronounced by competent autho- 

 rity to belong to a dipterous insect, although the genus could not 

 be satisfactorily determined. There was no proof of the existence 

 of an (Estrus peculiar to man alone. 



Alcyonarian Spicules. — Dr. E. Perceval Wright exhibited some 

 spicules of an Alcyonarian from the ' Challenger ' collection, which, 

 from their long needle-like shape, seemed to differ very much from 

 those belonging to any of the fixed Alcyonarians. These spicules 

 were of various lengths, of a pink colour, calcareous, and to be found 

 in large numbers in the ectoderm of the stem and polyps. The 

 external appearance of the species indicated an affinity to Xenict. 



Euastrum Arrnstrongianinn, Arch., a very rare Foivn, exhibited.— 



Mr. Archer showed examples of the extremely rare and very local 



