SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



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CONDUCTED BY P. SHILLINGTON SCALES, F.R.M.S. 



Royal Microscopical Society. — Annual meet- 

 ing, January 16th, 1901, William Carruthers, Esq., 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. Mr. Hugh M. 

 Leake exhibited a new form of rocking microtome, 

 designed to cut perfectly flat sections. Dr. Hebb 

 said it seemed to remedy certain defects of the 

 ordinary rocking microtomes, it appeared to be 

 easily manipulated, and was very stable and solid 

 in construction. The President said Mr. Leake 

 had taken great pains to bring this instrument to 

 perfection, and it appeared to be very efficient. 

 Dr. Hebb read the report of the Council for the 

 year 1900, and Mr. Vezey, the treasurer, read the 

 annual statement of accounts and balance-sheet. 

 The President announced that the whole of the 

 Fellows nominated for Officers and Council had 

 been duly elected, and expressed his thanks to the 

 Fellows of the Society for again placing him in 

 the position which he had occupied during the 

 past year. He congratulated the Society upon the 

 improved conditions indicated in the report. The 

 library had been gone through carefully, and much 

 that was useless was eliminated. Their thanks 

 were due to Mr. Radley for the great pains he had 

 taken in preparing the card catalogue. Their col- 

 lection of instruments had also been put into 

 excellent order. He congratulated the Fellows upon 

 the state of their funds. The President then read 

 the Annual Address, which consisted chiefly of an 

 interesting epitome of the life and work of John 

 Ellis — known in his time as " Coralline Ellis." 

 Mr. A. D. Michael in asking the Fellows to give 

 their thanks to the President for his Address, said 

 he had unearthed one of those attractive bye-paths 

 of science which, when brought to light, so often 

 proved to contain lessons that all might learn with 

 advantage. Ellis, originally attracted by the pic- 

 turesque side of the subject, was gradually drawn 

 on toward the scientific, and then endeavoured to 

 turn that scientific knowledge to the benefit of the 

 human race. There was no field of research more 

 enticing than that border-land which lies between 

 the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and the steps 

 by which the existing knowledge on this subject 

 had been acquired were of the greatest interest. 

 From the growth of knowledge the gap between 

 the lowly hydrozoa and the highly-organised 

 polyzoa seemed a wide one, but the keen insight 

 into Nature shown by the man or men who first 

 appreciated the differences between these very 

 similar groups of creatures went far to show how 

 great an observer Ellis really was. 



Postal Microscopical Society. — The annual 

 report of this Society has reached us. It contains 

 the report of the Hon. Secretary, Miss Florence 

 Phillips, of Hafod Euryn, Colwyn Bay, the financial 

 report, rules of the Society, and list of members. 

 The Secretary's report contains a reference to the 

 late Mr. Alfred Allen, of Bath, to whom the Society 

 owed so much from its first inception, and alludes 



to the new step in advance taken by the Society's 

 recent connection with SciEXCE-GrOSSIP, which 

 now regularly publishes excerpts from the note- 

 books circulated by the members as accompaniment 

 to their boxes of slides. The President for the 

 year is Sir Thomas Wardle. The balance-sheet 

 shows a satisfactory financial position, but we 

 could wish to see the number of members largely 

 increased. There must be many of the readers of 

 this journal who could both receive help from and 

 give help to a Society such as this, and though we 

 are glad to know that several of our readers have 

 recently joined we cannot help thinking that 

 others are deterred by a too modest consciousness 

 of their own shortcomings. Briefly put, the method 

 of working is to divide the members into circuits 

 of six members and the secretary, and to circulate 

 amongst each circuit boxes of slides accompanied 

 with descriptive notes, elaborate or simple, original 

 or gathered from others, as the owner's knowledge- 

 warrants. Each member provides twelve slides 

 per annum, and the notes for them. The slides 

 are not always original. At the end of their 

 travels the books and slides belong to the original 

 owner, and the former are generally enriched by 

 the notes and queries of the other members of the 

 circuit. No attempt whatsoever is made at fine 

 writing or description, or at pedantry. The Society 

 exists solely to help and encourage, and the present 

 writer can say frankly that in all his examination 

 of the books incidental to the work of making the 

 necessary selections likely to interest the readers 

 of this journal he has not come across a single un- 

 pleasant remark or discouragement of a beginner. 

 We make this observation thinking that there may 

 be amateur microscopists who are deterred by 

 some such thought from joining a Society which 

 could help them in so many ways. The annual 

 subscription is so small as to be within the reach 

 of all. 



Formalin and Alcohol as Preservatives 

 for Zoological Specimens. — The Journal of the 

 R.M.S. briefly alludes to a discussion by Mr. J. 

 Hornell, the well-known preparer of slides of marine 

 zoology, as to the respective values of formalin 

 and alcohol as preservatives for museum specimens. 

 Mr. Hornell expresses the opinion that the best 

 effects of formalin are seen with Medusae and 

 Tunicata, and says that most animals should be 

 mounted in formalin-alcohol after previous fixation. 

 For some animals which contain lime salts, such as 

 echinoderms and crustaceans, formalin is un- 

 suitable, as it slowly decalcifies them and renders 

 them very brittle. In collecting trips formalin is 

 more useful than alcohol, as in its concentrated 

 form it does not occupy so much space, and is. 

 therefore, more easily stowed. In microscopical 

 technique, maceration of the objects, sections, etc., 

 may be obviated by the use of a two per cent, solu- 

 tion, either as an addition to staining solutions, or 

 to replace pure water in washing out fixatives. 



Formaldehyde as a Killing and Fixing 

 Agent. — Formalin, formic aldehyde, or formal- 

 dehyde, which are all practically the same thing. 

 are now so generally used for killing, fixing, and 

 preserving that the following formula, as used by 

 Prof. T. P. Carter for killing and fixing, and given by 

 him in the American Monthly Microscopical Journal, 

 may be of service to some of our readers. It is as 

 follows : Formaldehyde. 40 per cent, solution. 50 

 ccm. ; distilled water. 50 ccm. : glacial acetic acid, 

 5 ccm. Bv this solution tissues are killed and 



