tort] BRIEFER ARTICLES 63 
the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 
the publications of the United States National Museum. His collec- 
tions, both botanical and ethnological, have been remarkable, not for 
the prettiness of the various objects, but for the completeness of the 
material and the care shown in his notes. 
He continued his chosen work to the very end. His last exploration 
was in rg1o, in the vicinity of Tampico, on the gulf coast of Mexico. 
After his return he occupied himself in assorting and distributing his 
_ material. On the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of his birth, 
the Botanical Society of Washington held a special meeting in his honor, 
at which a paper on his life and work by the author of the present sketch 
was read, together with letters written by various eminent men of 
science not residing in Washington. During the meeting of the society 
Dr. PALMER was seated in the place of honor, and at the close of the 
exercises he was presented with an appropriate birthday gift as a token 
of the appreciation of the members of the society of his important life- 
work. The venerable traveler received the congratulations of those 
present with tears streaming down his cheeks, doubtless realizing that 
this must be his valedictory—W. E. Sarrorp, Department of Agri- 
culture, Washington, D.C. 
DEHYDRATING WITH ALCOHOL 
(WITH FOUR FIGURES) 
The difficulty which undergraduate students who take courses in 
histology find in giving regular attention to dehydration, led me to a 
search for an automatic method. Osmotic means were rejected because 
they are uncontrollable and give no indication of the stage of the process. 
Work on the principle of slowly adding alcohol of increasing strength 
to the tissue developed the simple apparatus shown in fig. 1. During 
the past two years this apparatus has been used for dehydrating all 
kinds of plant tissue for histology and embryology. It has also been 
used instead of glycerin in preparing algae to be mounted in Venetian 
turpentine. 
The alcohol from the supply bottle drops from the lower end of the 
“capillary”? » into the thistle tube, which conveys it to the bottom of 
the mixing tube B. The alcohol diffuses with the water in B, and the 
increase in volume is carried to the dehydrating tube C through the 
connecting tube x. Naturally, as more alcohol is added to B, the 
strength of the liquid passing into C increases, but as that in B is always 
