1880. ] Scientific News. 389 
dinary temperature of a room occupied for. living purposes, the 
sediment deposited may be found to contain, after some hours, 
monads whose movements are easily discernible with a magnify- 
ing powers of from 200 to 400 diameters. pon allowing the 
water to stand still longer I have found the conferve growing 
thriftily, and in some instances forming clusters or bundles fre- 
quented by minute animalcule, the entire appearance in this case 
being very similar to that presented by the nests occupied by the 
young of the common Paramecium which I have seen in stagnant 
water. As the result of these investigations I am fully convinced 
that freezing does not free water from filth due to the presence of 
sewage or decaying vegetable matter, and further, that it is alto- 
gether probable that the germs from which animaicule are de- 
veloped, if not the animalcule themselves in a quiescent state, are 
present in very much of the ice taken from stagnant water. This 
eing the case, it would seem that the use of such ice in drinking 
water is hazardous, to say the least —M. A. Veeder, Lyons, N. Y. 
AMERICAN Society oF Microscopists.—The Executive Com- 
mittee of this Society has decided upon Tuesday, August 17th, 
as the date of the coming meeting at Detroit, which is expected 
to continue four days. Ample arrangements are already being 
-made for the entertainment of the Society by the local Micro- 
scopical Club. 
:0: 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
— Epirors Naturauist.—The severe criticism upon a short 
paper on the Entomostraca, which I published in the Report of 
the Minnesota Geological Survey, seems to admit of a reply. 
The writer is not uncognizant of numerous faults in the paper, 
but is not willing to renounce the hope, expressed in the preface, 
that it will be of some slight service to those for whom it was 
designed. 
The reviewer seems to ignore the design of the paper and the 
avowal of the author, which cover most of the points criticised. 
reviewer deplores the absence of reference, in one case at least, to 
