ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY. ETC. 1077 



optical apparatus." To Messrs. Eoss & Co. a Gold Medal for " Pro- 

 gress and excellence of work in the manufacture of lenses since the 

 early days of photography, also microscopic and other optical appa- 

 ratus." To Mr. H. Crouch a Silver Medal for " Improvements in 

 microscopic ajiparatus." And to Mr. C. Baker a Bronze Medal for 

 " Students' microscopic apparatus."* 



Photo-micrograpli of Tongue of Blow-fly.— The Photographic 

 Society of Great Britain awarded a medal to Mr. Mansell J. Swift for 

 a photo-micrograph of this object shown at their recent exhibition. 

 There were 805 exhibits, and 20 medals were awarded.^ 



Pen-and-ink Drawings of Microscopic Objects.^— A very valuable 

 addition has recently been made to the science collections now dis- 

 jjlayed in the western galleries at the South Kensington Museum of 

 Science and Art. Mr. Kochefort Connor, of the Inland Eevenue 

 Department, has prepared a number of exquisitely finished pen-and- 

 ink drawings of objects viewed with the Microscope, often by the aid 

 of very high powers. 



The collection, which covers two large screens in the rooms 

 devoted to biology and geology, includes drawings of insects and other 

 minute forms of animals and of various anatomical preparations from 

 them, of curiosities of pond-life and of the skeletons of many organ- 

 isms both recent and fossil. Amongst these last Mr. Connor's highly 

 finished representation of some of the more comj^licated forms of the 

 Diatomaceaj, such as Heliopelta and CoscinocUscus, are especially worthy 

 of admiration, though some of his drawings of Foraminifera, Fryozoa, 

 and sponge-si)icules are scarcely inferior to these in delicacy of execu- 

 tion. These drawings represent, we understand, the leisure hours of 

 a busy lifetime, and their author is now engaged in a series of micro- 

 scopic drawings illustrating the characters of food products and their 

 adulterants. A few of these are now exhibited as samples, and the 

 series, when complete, cannot fail to be of great use to public analysts 

 and others. 



Supposed increase of the Aperture of an Objective by using 

 highly refractive Media. — A very important misapprehension appears 

 to liave arisen on this subject amongst some of our colonial brethren, 

 it being Rui)posed that by using a mounting medium of high refractive 

 index an objective of small aperture can be made equal in etfect to one 

 of large aperture. This is recorded in the Journal of the Eoyal Society 

 of New South Walc8,§ from which we make the following extracts. 



" Dr. Morris exhibited a new mounting medium, having a refrac- 

 tive angle of 2 6, the highest known, and comparing favourably with 

 the celebrated one of Vroi. Smith, of Geneva, New York. Sulphur is 

 melted on the slide, and the cover to which the diatoms are attached 

 is dropped ujjon and j)res8ed down upon the sulphur ; the refractive 

 index of sulphur is li. Also selenium and sulphur ground and mixed 



* Supplement to the 'Londfm Gazottc' of 11th August, 1885, No, 25,000. 

 t Cf. Joiirn. and TrauH. I'liot. Soc, x. (1«85; p. 13. 

 X Nature, xxxii. (188.0) p. G3:i 



§ Jouni. aixl I'roc. K<.y. Soc. N. B. Wales, xviii. (1884) pp. 178-9. 

 fjfcr. 2.— Vol. V. 4 A 



