December 30, 1892,] 



SCIENCE. 



569 



The cloth bearing lor the glass is treated with corrosive subli- 

 mate, and the paste and glue used are arseniated. These boxes are 

 kept in cabinets, the glass doors of which are fitted with a rab- 

 bited groove on all four sides, thus making them also dust- and 

 insect-proof. 



The collections kept in these cabinets are arranged in three 

 series. Series one is the systematic collection, where the organ- 

 isms producing injuries to plants are grouped in the oidinary 

 order, beginning with mammals and ending with the higher 

 plants. The second series is the "host" collection, where the 

 various plants are taken up in an agricultural order, as, for in- 

 stance, seed crops, fruit crops, etc., and the injuries to each par- 

 ticular crop illustrated. In the third series, the symptomatic 

 collection, all diseases having a common symptom are brought 

 together, thus all galls and distortions from whatever cause or 

 on whatever plant are assembled and classified. 



Besides these there are the beginnings of a cryptogamic herb 

 arium in drawers and a collection representing the materia medica 

 of plant diseases. 



There are in the laboratory a sterilizer and all the other neces- 

 sary apparatus for this class of bacteriological work. For micro- 

 scopical and histological work there is also a good equipment in- 

 cluding paraffin bath, microtome suitable for the highest grade 

 of work, compound microscopes and accessories, and a very good 

 outfit of reagents. 



All reagents, as far as possible, are kept in standard strengths, 

 and the bottles marked to serve as graduates for dilution. Thus 

 the chromic acid is made up in a large bottle into a 5 per cent 

 solution. The 1 per cent solution is made by filling the bottle to 

 contain it to a mark and adding water. Most of the chronvic 

 mixtures are made from the one per cent. The chromic-acetic 

 killing mixture, for instance, is made, as is indicated on the label, 

 from one-half per cent chromic acid to the first mark, 95 percent 

 alcohol to the second, and 10 per cent acetic acid to the neck. 

 Mixtures liable to deteriorate are kept in small bottles, and such 

 as the acid-alcohols for decolorizing are not kept mixed at all, 

 but large homo vials are properly labelled and the mixtures 

 made up as used. 



This sketch gives merely the present condition of the labora- 

 tory, it is expected that apparatus will be added from time to 

 time as opportunity offers and as it is needed for the work in 

 hand; indeed, there is considerable new apparatus at the present 

 time being constructed for the laboratory. 



AN IVIPORTANT COLLECTION OF MOLLUSC A. 



BY HENBT A. PILSBRY, ACAD, NAT. SCI., PHILADELPmA. 



It is not generally known, even among specialists, that one of 

 the most valuable and most instructively arranged collections of 

 MoUusca in America, is that which Professor Henry A. Ward 

 has brought together at Rochester, N.Y. This collection the 

 writer has recently had an opportunity to examine, and it is be- 

 lieved that some account of it may be useful not only to specialists 

 in Mollusk morphology, or conchologists desiring to see rare 

 shells, but also to those who look upon a collection especially as 

 an instrument of education for class or public use. 



The primary idea of Professor Ward's collection is to give the 

 spectator not only a comprehensive but a comprehensible view of 

 all phases of Mollusk life; and to this end a number of the more 

 typically developed forms of each genus have been selected for 

 exhibition. The practical advantage in limiting the number of 

 species representing each genus will be readily admitted by those 

 who have observed the effect, on the non-scientific observer, of 



the vast wilderness of similar species exhibited in some of the 

 public museums of our large cities. 



A further purpose has been to procure the best specimens ob- 

 tainable of each species represented, and to select not merely the 

 rare and beautiful, but, before all, species and specimens which 

 have a life history worth knowing, and can tell it themselves. 



The dry specimens of shells are contained in horizontal glazed 

 cases disposed around the sides of two rooms, — in all, about 220 

 linear feet of cases. Wall-cases behind them contain alcoholic 

 Mollusks, and drawers below hold additional species. The speci- 

 mens are mounted upon light wooden tablets, appropriately col- 

 ored, and made by gluing two pieces together, crossing the grain 

 to prevent warping. Labels for families and higher groups are 

 printed, and in most cases contain a concise statement of the 

 fundamental characters of the group. The shellless forms, such 

 as most Cephalopoda and the Nuclibranchiaia are represented by 

 Blatscbka's beautiful models, now, alas ! no longer obtainable. 



A few hasty notes upon some of the specimens may be of in- 

 terest. Upon entering the outer room one sees suspended from 

 the ceiling a life-size model of the fiigantic Squid (Architevthis) 

 of the North Atlantic, its suckered tentacular arms thirty feet in 

 length. The actual existence of such monsters almost makes us 

 forgive old Denys de Montfort for his picture of a '• Poulpe 

 Colossal" dragging down a full-rigged ship ! The first horizontal 

 cases contain shells of the Paper Nautilus; then several s) ecies of 

 the Chambered Nautilus. A specimen of the animal of the latter 

 (Nautilus pompilius) in its shell i* one of a very few in America; 

 though the shells are not uncommon, this remnant of a Palseoz.oic 

 and Mesozoic race is rarely found in the flesh. The pelagic Pter- 

 opods are arranged after theCephalopods, and then the air-breath- 

 ing Gastropods. The latter series begins with carnivorous forms, 

 the worm-eating genus Testacella, in which the shell is degen- 

 erate, ovving to its subterranean habits, standing first,' followed 

 by the Floridian Olandina, which has a well-developed shell, and 

 subsists largely upon snails, swallowing them whole and digesting 

 the soft parts out of the shells at leisure. Following these are 

 the Achatinas of Africa, largest of land snails. The striped, oval 

 shells are 8 or 9 inches long. With them are specimens of their 

 eggs, hitherto, I believe, undescribed. They are about the size 

 of a sparrow's egg, oval, with calcareous shell, and of a bright 

 sulphur-yellow color; the only case known to me of a land snail 

 having colored eggs. 



In an adjacent case are the South American Bulimi, Tomigerus 

 and Anostorna, having ujiturned apertures. An Amazonian In- 

 dian who collected them said to Professor Ward, "God laughed 

 when he made these shells " 



The numerous families of marine gastropods are represented by 

 characteristic specimens, among them a good number of species 

 which, to my knowledge, are not in any other American museum. 

 The families Vohitidce, Conklce, and Muricidce may be mentioned 

 as affording valuable material. An example of Xenophora 

 conehyliophora carried a load of rounded pebbles soldered to his 

 shell instead of the usual disguise of shells and shell- fragments, 

 obviously showing the character of the sea-bottom he lived upon, 

 and an ability to adapt himself to unusual circumstances. 



In the Turbinidce we examined the unique type of Astralhtm 

 Wardii Baker, and incline to consider it a form of A. Japonicvni 

 Dkr. It will he of interest to conchologists to learn that the 

 hitherto unknown operculum of A. modesfum Eve. of Japan is 

 represented by several specimens, and that it proves to be of the 

 same abnormal type as that of the Mediterranean species. A. 

 rugosum, the form and the position of the nucleus being the same 

 in both. The operculum of A. modestum, however, is pure white, 

 while that of the other species is scarlet. 



The series of Lamellibranchiata is of equally great extent. But 

 further enumeration would be tedious. We may confidently 

 state that those interested in science-education or in animal life- 

 history and structure will find, as the writer has done, that this 

 collection is full of most valuable suggestions and material, and 

 will well repay a visit to Rochester. 



1 The writer has recently shown that the South African genus Aerope is 

 more highly specialized than any other carnivorous land-snail, and It should. 

 therefore be given first place in the series. 



