732 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



alive. The same process tried on Cyclops quadricornis (only with a 

 shallow cell to contain a depth of water just enough not to squeeze 

 the creature betwixt slip and cover) allowed young Cyclops to hatch 

 out of the eggs in each instance some dozens in number, and very 

 active, the old and young doing well at the end of forty-eight 

 hours. The author adds :- — " Obviously if one finds a rare minute 

 creature, and wishes to send it to a friend for inspection, one may seal 

 it up in this way without the risk, or it may be, certainty of losing it 

 involved in placing it in a tube. It will live comfortably enough 

 during transmission by post, or during the few hours required to carry 

 it to the meeting of a society, or a friend's house. It is even safer in 

 transmission, because the quantity of water used is not enough to 

 shake about as it will in tubes or small bottles, and half a day's 

 fishing to find it again is dispensed with, as it is sure to be on the 

 slide." 



Microscopical Examination of Textile Fabrics.* — Prof. C. Cramer 

 has paid special attention to the detection of adulterations of the three 

 following kinds in textile fibres. 



1. Detection of Chinese grass (Boehmeria nivea) in silk. In floss- 

 silk containing adulteration to the extent of from 50 to 75 per 

 cent., ordinary chemical tests are unable to detect the nature of the 

 admixture. Microscopical and microchemical examination prove 

 the presence in the silk of bundles of bast-fibres of Boehmeria nivea, 

 which are snow-white, shining and rigid, in contrast to the yellow 

 and more flexible threads of silk. They are at most 18 cm. in length, 

 while the silk threads are much longer ; the diameter of the latter 

 varying between 0*0076 and 0*0214 mm., that of the former between 

 0'0061 and 0*00643 mm. The natural ends of the bast-fibres are 

 finely pointed, of the silk threads abruptly broken. The bast-fibres 

 have a cavity, sometimes too small to be measured, but varying to a 

 width of 0*055 mm.; silk is solid and homogeneous. The walls of 

 the former are swollen and knotted in places, exhibiting in sulphuric 

 acid clear longitudinal striae ; silk has nothing of the kind. In 

 polarized light the bast-fibres show bright colours in the middle and 

 at the margin ; the polarization colours of silk are dull and not visible 

 in the middle. In addition, the bast-fibres readily take fire ; are not 

 coloured yellow by nitric acid, while silk is; remain white when 

 warmed with Millon's reagent, silk becoming red; with iodine and 

 sulphuric acid they turn a copper-red, violet, or indigo-blue colour, 

 accompanied by swelling, while silk becomes golden-yellow or brown ; 

 and boiling with concentrated soda-ley does not attack the bast-fibres ; 

 this last test being used to determine the extent of the adulteration. 



2. Detection of shoddy in woollen fabrics. In a specimen of blue 

 cloth, the wool having been removed by potash-ley, were found vege- 

 table adulterations, consisting of unconnected bast-fibres, and thickish 

 branched and anastomosing bundles of bast-cells * 006 to * 015 mm. 

 in thickness, and not more than 0*2 to * 65 mm. in length. These 



* Cramer, C, ' Drei gerichtliche mikroskopische Expertisen betreffend 

 Textile-Fasern.' 29 pp., Zurich, 1881. 



