SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



21 



Vegetable Sections. — Will someone please tell 

 me, through the pages of Science-Gossip, which 

 is the best book on cutting, staining and mounting 

 vegetable sections. — /. Stephenson, 23, Avenue 

 Parade, Accrington ; February 15th, 1895. 



Mounting Delicate Micro - Organisms. — I 

 should be much obliged if anyone would inform 

 me through the pages of Science-Gossip of the 

 best manner of mounting small animalcula for the 

 microscope. I have tried in vain to mount a 

 specimen of Cyclops, but the creature is so small 

 that it seems impossible to kill it without crushing 

 it altogether, and if one leaves it to dry up of itself 

 on the slide it twists itself into such contortions 

 that it is no use as a specimen. — (Miss) C. M. 

 Gibbings, Sunnyside, Mears Ashby, Northampton ; 

 February nth, 1895. 



Micro-Organisms of Sewage. — Some little 

 time ago the Main-drainage Committee of the 

 London County Council appointed Mr. J. Parry 

 Laws and Dr. F. W. Andrews to investigate the 

 micro-organisms in London sewage. The object of 

 this enquiry was to ascertain the species of bacteria 

 present, and their influence on the health of the 

 metropolis. The report is perhaps more satis- 

 factory than was anticipated. With regard to the 

 bacterial flora of sewage, some species which are 

 abundant in other places, cannot survive in a main- 

 drainage system, while others exist in incredible 

 numbers. For instance, it was found on the 26th 

 January, 1894, tna t an average of 2,781,650 bacteria 

 occupied each cubic centimetre of fresh sewage 

 from St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Many of these 

 seem to disappear in their journey to the outflow, 

 for the average at Barking appeared to be only 

 1,900,000 per ccm. This report is sold, price 4d., 

 by Stamford, 26, Cockspur Street, S.W. 



Preserving Sea-Weeds. — The following recipe 

 is recommended by Dr. J. P. Lotsy, for preserving 

 examples of Florideae for microscopic examination. 

 " The specimen is first laid in a one per cent, solution 

 of chrome-alum in sea-water and kept there for a 

 period varying from one to twenty-four hours, 

 according to the size and texture of the species. 

 The chrome-alum is then completely washed out, 

 and the specimen placed in a mixture of 5 ccm. 

 of 96 per cent, alcohol in 100 ccm. of water and 

 vigorously stirred. The amount of alcohol is then 

 increased by increments of 5 ccm. every quarter of 

 an hour until it amounts to 50 ccm. The specimen is 

 then removed and placed in a mixture of 25 per cent, 

 alcohol in distilled water, and the quantity of alcohol 

 again increased in the same way, till it amounts to 

 50 ccm. alcohol to 100 ccm. of water. The same 

 process is again repeated with 50, Go, 70, 80 and 90 

 per oent. solutions of alcohol in distilled water ; the 

 specimen being finally preserved in the last." 



Adaptation in Melicerta. — Some years ago I 

 was quartered with my regiment at Leeds, and 

 being very fond of microscopic work, pond life for 

 preference, I managed to forage for miles round in 

 ponds and brooks for different specimens. On the 

 the whole I was tolerably successful, yet in all mv 



searchings I never found a single Melicerta ringens. 

 Happening to be on leave about that time down in 

 Suffolk, I found a pond, near the place I was 

 staying at, which swarmed with Melicerta on Chora 

 nitella. On my return to Leeds I took a large jar 

 of them with me and emptied them into a finger 

 glass, which I put outside my window. The air of 

 Leeds is not exactly pure, and there is, all day long, 

 a continuous fall of black smuts from the thousand 

 tall chimneys which by no means consume their 

 own smoke. Indeed there is a saying that snow 

 comes down white only once a week, on Sundays, 

 when the furnaces are damped down. At all other 

 times it is black. I did not look at my Melicerta for 

 three or four days after my return, when I found 

 the little creatures had worked the smuts up in the 

 pellets which make up their habitations. The lower 

 part of the cases were, as usual brown, the upper 

 part, when the Leeds smoke came in, quite black. 

 I may add it did not seem to do them any harm. — 

 (Major) J . Stunt, St. Peter's, Jersey. 



Royal Microscopical Society. — Mr. A. D. 

 Michael, F.L.S., devoted his presidential address, 

 delivered on January 16th, to reviewing the history 

 of the Royal Microscopical Society. It appears 

 that the society is now upwards of half a century 

 old. On the 3rd of September, 1839, in the 

 drawing-room of No. 50, Wellclose Square, now a 

 far from fashionable neighbourhood at the eastern 

 side of the Tower of London, there met at the 

 invitation of its owner, Edwin J. Quekett, F.L.S., 

 seventeen gentlemen, and out of that meeting rose 

 the now important society. Edwin Quekett must 

 not be mistaken for his celebrated younger brother, 

 John, though he was a man of scientific reputation, 

 practising medicine at Wellclose Square, where he 

 died in 1847, only thirty-eight years old. This 

 meeting was purely accidental, but included the 

 Rev. William Quekett, Chas. Foulger, Edward 

 Newman, D. Farre, Geo. Jackson, Joseph J. Lister, 

 F.R.S., Geo. and Conrad Loddige, Cornelius 

 Varley, Solly Reade, N. B. Ward (inventor of 

 Wardian cases) and others. Such were the 

 gatherings of " Bowerbank's Band of Brothers," 

 held for friendly discussion ; and at one of these, it 

 is said that Bowerbank exclaimed " God bless the 

 microscope, let us have a society." Out of that 

 remark, further discussed at Ward's house, was 

 formed the Royal Microscopical Society. The 

 name adopted was " The Microscopical Society 

 of London," the first president being the late 

 Professor Owen. The initial purchase of the 

 society was practical, being a diamond and cutting- 

 board for glasses for microscopical slides, for the 

 use of the members, a provisional committee 

 having fixed uniform sizes of 3 inch x i| inch and 

 3 inch x 1 inch. The society shortly afterwards 

 arranged, for a rental of ^"20 per annum, to use the 

 rooms of the Horticultural Society at 21, Regent 

 Street. In 1S41, Daniel Cooper established his 

 " Microscopical Journal," having obtained per- 

 mission to publish the "Transactions "of the society. 

 Among those who joined the society in the first 

 year were Richard Beck, Professor Thomas Bell, 

 John Birkett, of Guy's Hospital, Geo. Bask, Sir 

 James Clarke, John Edward Gray, of the British 

 Museum, Chas. Hullah, the musician, Dr. Lindley, 

 Van Voorst, the bookseller, and Erasmus Wilson. 

 In 1S52, the society moved to the Chemical 

 Society's rooms at 5, Cavendish Square, but a year 

 later it moved back to their old quarters, remaining 

 until 1856, when King's College became its home, 

 until the Council was able to finally settle in its 

 present rooms in Hanover Square. 



