ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 655 



a model of its kind. We are certain of 51 Ph.G.'s who know something of 

 the use of the Microscope."] 



The Microscope, VIII. (1888) p. 156. 



Italian Microscopical Society. 



[Just formed; articles and papers are to be published in Latin, French, 

 English, and German. Secretary, Sigr. J. Platania, 14, Via S. Giuseppe, 

 Acireale, Sicily.] 



Sci.-Gossip, 1888, p. 139. 



Munchausen still alive. 



[While the following is too outrageous rubbish for the pages of the Summary, 

 it ought not to go quite unrecorded. " A weekly and much-read paper has 

 the following bit of veracity : The Human Blood. — ' Professor Bronson (an 

 American) states, that if a drop of human blood be subjected to examination 

 by the hydi-ogen Microscope, and magnified some 20,000,000 of times, all the 

 species of animals now existing on the earth, or that have existed during 

 the different stages of creation for thousands of years past will be then 

 discovered. In the blood of a healthy person all the animalcula are quiet 

 and peaceable ; but in the blood of a diseased person they are furious, 

 raging, and preying upon each other. That man contains within himself all 

 the principles of the universe ; also, that, if a dead cat be thrown into a pool 

 of stagnant water, and allowed to dissolve there, a drop of water taken from 

 any part of the pool, will show as above, every species of animal of the cat 

 kind that has ever existed on the earth, raging and destroying one another, 

 the bodies of all the lower animals being tlius made animalcula similar to 

 themselves, and the body of man being compounded of all that is below in 

 the scale of creation.' "] 



Sci.-Gossip, 1888, p. 142. 



QuiNN, E. p. — The use of the Microscope in the examination of Eock Sections 

 by Polarized Light. 



Trans, and Ann. Bep, Manchester Micr Soc, 1887, pp. 60-1. 



Zentmayer, J., Obituary of. Queen's Micr. Bulletin, V. (1888) p. 9. 



13. Technique.* 

 CI) Collecting' Objects, including' Culture Processes. 



Preparation of Nutritive Media.f — Dr. E. Jacobi prepares agar, 

 gelatin and Fucus as nutritive media as follows : — The test-tubes, flasks, 

 &c., are first cleaned and stopped with cotton- wool, and then heated for 

 2 J hours in a Papin's digester over a gas-burner. The cotton-wool must 

 nowhere touch the sides of the digester. The temperature inside reaches 

 to about 150°. 



(1) In making agar-agar, the ordinary agar is cut into small pieces, 

 and (a) either 1|- litre of cold meat infusion with 15 gr. (1 per cent.1 

 peptone, 7*5 gr. (0-5 per cent.) NaCl, and 15-22*5 gr. (1-11 P^^ cent.) 

 agar, or (6) li litre of water, 7*6 (0-5 per cent.) Kemmerich's meat- 

 peptone, 15 gr. (1 per cent.) peptone, and 15-22*5 gr. agar, are boiled in 

 a metal saucepan over the open fire until the agar is perfectly dissolved, 

 which happens in about 3/4 hour. The water lost by evaporation is re- 

 placed and' the solution rendered slightly alkaline by means of carbonate 

 or phosphate of soda. The fluid is then poured into flasks and steamed 

 until the albuminous matters have separated out; if neutralized with 

 sodium phosphate this happens in about 2 hours ; if with carbonate of 

 soda, the time is longer. Filtration is effected in a few minutes. A 

 tube holding about 1^ litre, about 70 cm. long and 6 cm. in diameter, is 



* This subdivision contains (1) Collecting Objects, including Culture Pro- 

 cesses ; (2) Preparing Objects ; (3) Cutting, including Imbedding and Microtomes ; 

 (4) Staining and Injecting; (5) Mounting, including slides, preservative fluids, &c.,- 

 (6) Miscellaneous. 



t Centralbl. f, Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., iii. (1888) pp. 538-40. 



