486 Transactions of the Society. 



circumstances the animals continue to live for some ten or fifteen 

 seconds in the preservative medium, making their characteristic 

 movements, and retaining after death their normal figure. 



To perform the operation described, I have used in my experi- 

 ments test-tubes about 4 in. in length by ^ iru in diameter, each 

 fitted with a new cork. Great care should be taken to use new 

 tubes and new corks. These are filled with distilled water, and 

 allowed to remain for a few days in a horizontal position. In all 

 those cases in which the distilled water appeared to become coloured 

 by caries of the cork, the corks were rejected and fresh ones substi- 

 tuted. One of these tubes thus prepared is a little more than half 

 filled with the bichloride solution, and the animal is conveyed into 

 it with the pipette. After the death of the animal, the tube is 

 allowed to lie horizontally so that the creature may be fully exposed 

 to the action of the whole of the solution present ; in the vertical 

 position, the specimen would remain at the bottom of the tube in 

 contact with only a small quantity of the medium. 



[Mr. Squire has sent us some test-tubes containing Medusae 

 treated by his method. They fully bear out the claim he makes 

 to have discovered a process by which the animals are preserved 

 in a most effective manner, — Ed.] 



