ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 855 



around Jthe inner tube at the top of the outer one. The wool is then 

 shaken up in the gelatin, which afterwards may be removed by the 

 inner tube and spread out on plates, or it may be rolled out on the 

 inside of the large tube. The entrance of air is very quick, 50 litres in 

 15 minutes. 



Gelatin Culture Test for Micro-organisms of Water.* — Dr. 0. 

 Smart concludes an extensive consideration of the micro-organisms of 

 water with the following remarks in reference to the gelatin culture test, 

 which he believes to be valuable only in its doubtful promise for the 

 future : " At present," he says, " in the hands of the sanitary inquirer, it 

 gives but little information^ and that little is surrounded on all sides by 

 interrogation points. In the laboratory of the scientific investigator, 

 new methods may be discovered by which pathogenetic germs may be 

 isolated and identified ; but until that time arrives the sanitary analyst 

 must depend upon the chemical results as translated in each particular 

 instance by the aid of the ascertained sanitary environment of the water, 

 and however much he may cultivate the microbes, he should not forget 

 to inspect that other field of microscopic life (Nostoc, Kerona, Alg^, &c.) 

 to which reference was made at the beginning of this paper." 



Illustrations of Pond Life. — The following paragraph appears in the 

 ' Times ' report of the 12th September of the soiree of the British 

 Association at Bath : — 



" At the soiree there were a large number of Microscopes and illus- 

 trations of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, and of histology, but the 

 greatest novelty, which quite sui-prised most of the company, was a new 

 method of illustrating pond life. Three sides of a long room were 

 occupied with what are called transparencies. Brown paper is stretched 

 on frames. Pieces are cut out of the brown paper corresponding with 

 the size of the illustrations, which are painted on tissue paper. Behind 

 the long row of these illustrations there are rows of gas-jets, and the 

 strong light passing through the tissue paper made the objects distinctly 

 visible at a long distance. The naturalists from other parts of the 

 country quite envied the Bath and Bristol societies for the success they 

 had attained in devising such a method of illustration, and carrying it 

 out so efficiently." 



Microscopists will recognize the method as that originally devised 

 by Dr. Hudson, the President of this Society, to exhibit his drawings of 

 Eotifers.t 



Brown, F. W. — A course in Animal Histology. III. Blood. IV. The Connective 

 Tissues — Endothelium. 



The Microscope, VIII. (1888) pp. 177-80 (1 fig.), 201-3, 244-6. 

 EwiCH. — Ein Beitrag znr Pleischschau und Fleischkunde. (A coiitribution to the 

 examination and knowledge of meat.) 8vo, Osterwieck, 18s8. 



Feeebokn, G. C. — Notice of new Methods. V. 



Anier. Mon. Micr. Jmrn., IX, (1888) pp. 130-2. 



Hensoldt, H. — The Microscopical Investigation of Eoeks. A plea for the study 



of Peti-ology. Journ. N. York Micr. Soc, IV. (1888) pp. 139-44. 



* The Microscope, viii. (1888) p. 215, from ' Philad. Med. News.' 

 t The ' Athenaeum ' of 15th September refers to them as " representing micro- 

 scopic insect life from its lowest to its highest forms (!). They had been prepared by 

 Dr. Hudson, of Clifton, who also described them verbally." 



