( 
NOTE ON THE PRESERVATION OF SOME INFUSORIA. 341 
genius of dialect previously spoken, or from structure of vocal 
organs and habits of speech combined, fall, when they began to 
articulate the euphonioys vocables of the South, into some of the 
customs of pronunciation which distinguish ourselves, and so origi- 
nate local dialects possessing, in respect of literal sounds, an 
affinity with the English tongue ? 
NOTE ON THE PRESERVATION OF SOME INFUSORIA 
WITH A VIEW TO THE DISPLAY OF THEIR CILIA. 
BY JAMES BOVELL, M.D., TRIN. COLL., TORONTO. 
In No. XXII. of the Microscopical Journal for 1858, Dr. Ralph 
writes: ““Some months ago, I have made a decided advance in the 
preparation of insect tissues. I adopt the following plan: Place the 
insect alive in sweet spirits of nitre; it will die rapidly, and the air 
will be freely expelled, partly by reason of the volatility of the 
medium, and those with a proboscis, &c., will protrude it. After 
soaking a day, the specimens are to be rapidly transferred to a small 
quantity of clean spirits of turpentine, when all the sweet spirits of 
nitre will be expelled in the form of globules charged with grease ; 
immerse in a further supply of turpentine in a clean bottle, and when 
the specimen has been a day or two (perhaps a little longer time may 
be required) it can be mounted in the chloro-balsam. Refractory 
specimens, or those which are very oily, may, after immersion in 
sweet spirits of nitre, and cleaning in turpentine, be again soaked in 
sweet spirits of nitre, when the turpentine will be expelled. If they 
are then a second time taken out of the sweet spirits and plunged in: 
turpentine, the clearness of the globules which escape will indicate if 
the specimens are sufficiently cleansed. The sweet spirits of nitre 
must be fully expelled or the Canada balsam will assuredly quarrel 
with it, and form a cloud around the object. A modification of the 
above plan is, sulphuric ether in three times its bulk of spirits of 
wine.”’ 
Finding Mr. Ralph’s method a very efficient one for insects, I 
thought that a similar effect would be produced on the ciliated Infu- 
