716 



SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Cleaning Slides.* — Dr. F. L. James takes a widc-mouthed 

 (12-14 oz.) jar, of sufficient depth, and half fills it with a mixture of 

 gasoline or benzine, spirits of turpentine, and benzol. The slides 

 arc dropped into this and left overnight. When ready to wipe them, 

 take out each slide separately, and give it a good hard wipe with a 

 piece of muslin, and then polish with another clean bit of the same 

 stuff. " Try the plan once, and you will never use any other. Slides 

 thoroughly cleaned thus possess a quality which, in making glycerin 

 or aqueous mounts, is absolutely invaluable. While they are optically 

 and practically clean, such slides retain upon their surface an exceed- 

 ingly tenuous film of resinous matter that prevents water or glycerin 

 from attaching itself to the surface, and the consequence is that the 

 surplus of such fluid, after a cell is closed, rolls off the slide without 

 moistening it in the least. Cement, on the contrary, attaches itself 

 with extraordinary firmness and evenness." 



Apparatus for Sorting and Arranging Objects. — Mr. J. Hippis- 

 ley suggests the apparatus shown in fig. 149 for sorting and arranging 

 microscopic objects. 



A broad piece of sheet melal A is formed into a clip C at one 



Fig. 149. 



end so as to slide over the objective and into another at R to hold 

 a flexible indiarubber tube T. This tube has at the lower end a 

 curved glass tube G terminating in a very fine capillary point 

 which nearly touches the slide. By raising or lowering the rod B B 



* The Microscope, v. (1885) pp. 253-4, from St. Louis National Druggist. 



