2180 Microscopical Society. 



so favourable I was only confined two days to the house with rain. — Samuel Stevens ; 

 Vine Cottage, Blythe Lane, Hammersmith, Middlesex, June 10, 1848. 



Report of the Microscopical Society's Meetings. 



March 29, 1848. — Geo. Busk, Esq., President, in the chair. 



A paper by Mr. Warington, ' On a New Fluid for mounting Minute Microscopical 

 Preparations,' was read. 



The fluid recommended by Mr. Warington is glycerine. Tt is the sweet principle 

 of oil and fat, and is prepared by separating the fatty and oily acids, by combining 

 them with any base for which they may have a stronger affinity, as in the making of 

 soaps, &c, when the glycerine, which remains dissolved in the water employed in that 

 process is found to possess the property of preserving animal and vegetable substances. 

 Mr. W. was induced to try its application to the mounting of microscopic objects. 

 This is effected in the same manner as that employed when spirit of wine or creosote 

 water is used, when the object having been covered with a piece of thin glass, the mar- 

 gin is to be cemented with a coating of shell-lac varnish, the usual precautions being 

 carefully observed. Gold size or copal dissolved in oil of lavender may also be used 

 to effect the same purpose, and the second and third coatings of varnish may with ad- 

 vantage be of either of these, as they are less liable to become brittle than the shell-lac 

 varnish alone. The glycerine may be used either thick or diluted with water, accord- 

 ing to the object, and also with the addition of a small portion of common salt, corro- 

 sive sublimate, creosote, or spirit of wine, if considered desirable. Mr. Warington 

 also described his method of mounting certain classes of objects in castor oil, such as 

 crystals of salts, &c. The object being in a perfectly dry state, a small quantity of 

 castor oil is to be carefully dropped on, and guided over the field with the point of a 

 needle ; and care being taken that the cell is perfectly full, without any excess, it is to 

 be covered with a piece of thin glass, and the shell-lac varnish applied as in the former 

 instance. 



A second paper, by Dr. A. Clark, being ' Observations on the Anatomy of the Skin 

 of a Species of Muraena,' was read. 



The author commenced by stating, that the skin of this Muraena and of the allied 

 genera consists of a primary or basement membrane and epithelial cells, the conjoint 

 inflexions of which constitute the follicles or glands. Upon examining a vertical sec- 

 tion of the skin with the naked eye, it appears to be divided into two pretty nearly 

 equal parts. The outer one is dark, dense, firm and semitransparent ; and the inner 

 is yellowish, loose, oily and opaque. The first of these consists of the epithelium, the 

 germinal membrane, the pigment, the glands and the fibrous tissue, which collectively 

 form the skin proper ; the latter of a very loose filamentous tissue, the interstices of 

 which arc filled with pale globules. The epithelial cells are situated on the surface of 

 the skin, and are described as constituted of a transparent homogeneous cell-wall, lined 

 on its internal surface by a layer of elementary molecules or granules ; 2nd, of an ec- 

 centric nucleus; and 3rd, more or less solid or fluid cell-contents. In examining 

 mucus scraped from several parts of the body, various modifications of the epithelial 

 cells were observed, viz., ciliated, tessellated, caudate and spherical. The glands are 



