ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 521 



be present a rose-red precipitate will be formed. Allow it to settle, and 

 remove with a pipette a drop of the precipitate, and place on a cover- 

 glass. Hold this for a moment over the flame of a spirit-lamp, and 

 with a bit of absorbent paper take up the clear liquid which forms. A 

 drop of fuchsin or magenta is now added and allowed to remain a few 

 minutes, or long enough to stain the pellicle on the cover-glags. Wash 

 in water and clear with acetic acid. If blood-corpuscles be present they 

 will appear stained a bright red. 



Dr. F. L. James makes some suggestions as to carrying out the 

 process. It very frequently happens that the authorities (or sometimes 

 the attorneys for the defendant) will not allow a fabric to be cut or 

 mutilated, for reasons which are obvious. In two such cases in which 

 he carried out the examination, he proceeded as follows: — The saline 

 solution (1 : 1000) was placed in a small glass saucer or watch-glass, and 

 the cloth (a handkerchief in one instance, a linen cuff in the other) was 

 folded across one of the spots. The surface was rubbed together some 

 moments, and then carefully turned over so that the abraded surfaces 

 rested face downward in the saucer, touching the fluid. Holding it 

 firmly on the edges of the little vessel, a paper-knife was rubbed several 

 times over the spot from the back. The brownish-red or iron-rust colour 

 rapidly imparted itself to the fluid, and after letting the glass stand for 

 a few hours a drop removed from the bottom disclosed the blood-cor- 

 puscles under the Microscope. In cases where a very small piece of the 

 stained material may be removed, the picking to pieces should be 

 done in a watch-glass, and the saline solution poured over it. 



Microscopical Examination of Paper.* — Herr J. Wiesner publishes 

 the results of a microscopical examination of the paper in the El-Faijum 

 collection, made by the Arabs in the eighth and ninth centuries. He 

 finds that it was not made, as has been usually supposed, from " raw " 

 or unmanufactured cotton, but from linen rags, an invention which has 

 usually been ascribed to the fourteenth century. The chief constituent 

 of the paper is linen, among which are traces of cotton, hemp, and of 

 several animal fibres. Well-preserved yarn-threads are of frequent 

 occurrence. The invention of linen-paper is, therefore, neither Italian 

 nor German, but Eastern. The paper was invariably " clayed," the 

 substance used being always starch-paste, and not in the rough state, 

 but prepared starch, apparently from wheat. In the tenth and eleventh 

 centuries buckwheat-starch was employed. The materials used for 

 writing were apparently iron tannate, Indian ink, and carbon. 



The author further examined more than 500 Eastern and European 

 papers, ranging from the ninth to the fifteenth century, not one of which 

 was made from " raw " cotton ; the greater number were made of linen, 

 and " clayed " with starch-paste ; the use of glue or resin for this purpose 

 begins with the fourteenth century. 



Illustrations to Microscopical Publications.! — The editors of ' The 

 Microscope' write on this subject as follows : — 



" In looking over the various text-books and other publications 

 dealing with microscopical subjects, one cannot fail to be impressed with 

 the clear fine-cut appearance of the usual illustrations. To one not 

 familiar w T ith the subject, a study of many of these illustrations should 

 lead him to the conclusion that microscopy, so far as observation goes, 



* Wiesner, J., 'Die Mikroskopisckc Unters. d. Papieres, 1887, 82 pp., and 

 15 fis;s. See But. Centralbl., xxxiii. (1888) p. 340. 

 f The Microscope, viii. (1S88) p. 60-1. 



