ll(j SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATDJa TO 



cooling. When sufficiently cool the capillary portion is again drawn 

 once or twice through the flame to destroy any particles that may 

 have become attached meanwhile. The ventilator of the culture-tube, 

 containing the bacteria to be sowni, is flamed and removed and the 

 narrow tube of the cap flamed, the rubber bulb slightly compressed, 

 and the pipette introduced, a few drops drawn up, the pipette slowly 

 withdrawn, the cap flamed again, and the ventilator replaced. The 

 cap of the fresh tube is now flamed before and after removing the 

 ventilator, the jupette introduced, a drop allowed to fall into the 

 culture-liquid, the pipette removed, the narrow tube of the cap again 

 flamed, and the ventilator replaced. When the source of the bacteria 

 is an exudate, or the flow of the animal body, various methods are in 

 use. The method above given may, however, be employed in most 

 cases. 



The reservoir may be variously modified. A flask-shaped body 

 may be used for cultures that require an abundance of air, but the 

 test-tube form will serve nearly all purposes. It enables the nature 

 of the opacity in the liquid to be readily determined, while the 

 earliest traces of a membrane or a deposit are more easily detected 

 than with a broad body and a flat bottom. 



The culture-tube recommends itself as a simple, very neat appa- 

 ratus, readily filled, sterilized, and inoculated. It dispenses with the 

 troublesome and dangerous expedients of disturbing cotton plugs, 

 and of tying down various air-filtering materials. It is easily cleaned, 

 and hence may be used over and over again, the original cost of the 

 tube being in this way reduced to a minimum in the end. It does 

 not break readily, nor are there any sharp or jagged edges to be 

 feared in the manipulation of dangerous cultures. It is very compact, 

 and occupies but very little space in a thermostat. Finally, the 

 chances of contamination through the air during the process of 

 inoculation are practically of no account. 



Collecting Microscopic Algae.* — An anonymous correspondent, 

 referring to a suggestion for placing slides back to back and then 

 suspending them from hoops in ponds, proposes a modification of 

 this plan by taking waxed paper (from cakes of soap) and punching 

 holes slightly smaller than the largest covers, then wrapping the 

 paper about the slides in such a way as to bring the holes in the 

 middle on each side. On suspending the slides, growths are secured 

 on a space a little smaller than the covers, and good mounts can bo 

 obtained. Another suggestion is to take a slide with a spot of 

 growing forms upon it, sui-rouud it with a cleft ring, as in Hardy's 

 vivarium, bind on another slip, and the little world is ready for 

 observation. 



Preparations of the Central Nervous System for Projection.t— 

 L. Edinger points out how much preferable actual sections of the 

 central nervous system are for students as compared with diagrams. 

 Hitherto, however, it has been very difiicult to show them, for being 



* Amer. Mon. Micr. Journ., v. (1884) p. 200. 

 t Zeitschr. f. Wiss. Mikr., i. (1884) pp. 250-1. 



