532 The American Naturalist [June, 



According to Science the entomological collection of the late Henry 

 Edwards has gone into the possession of the American Museum of 

 Natural History, New York City. Friends in theatrical circles sub- 

 scribed $10,000 and the Museum $5,000 for its purchase. The collec- 

 tion includes more than 350,000 specimens. 



From Psyche we learn that a study of California butterflies, and 

 especially their comparison with those of Eastern America and Europe, 

 leads S. H. Scudder, in the Overland Monthly for April to claim that 

 the highest type of human civilization is to arise on the Pacific coast. 



Prof. C. H. T. Townsend of the New Mexico Agricultural College is 

 vigorously prosecuting his studies of American Tachinidse, as is shown 

 by numerous recent papers in entomological periodicals. 



Prof. J. B. Smith has recently published as Bulletin No. 851 of the 

 U. S. National Museum a Revision of the Species of Mamestra. 



In an admirably illustrated paper Dr. C. V. Riley gives, in recent 

 Insect Life (v. IV, Nos. 7 and 8) an interesting account of the larger 

 digger wasp (Sphecius spheciosus~), concluding with this suggestive 

 paragraph : " If man could do what these wasps have done from time 

 immemorial, viz., preserve for an indefinite period the animals he 

 feeds on by the simple insertion of some toxic fluid in the tissues, he 

 would be able to revolutionize the present methods of shipping cattle 

 and sheep, and to obviate much of the cruelty which now attends the 

 transportation of live stock and much of the expense involved in cold 

 storage." 



MICROSCOPY. 1 



Notes on Bone Technique. — In preparing bone for sectioning 

 it is well to have fresh material taken from a young individual. After 

 the soft parts are removed the bone is cut into short pieces and then 

 macerated in water until the medulla is easily washed out; they are 

 then ready to section. 



Preparations nearly as good as those obtained by maceration may be 

 made from fresh tissue. Thin sections are cut from the desired region 

 with a fine saw ; from these the medulla should be carefully washed 

 out under a jet of water ; they are then ground until the desired thin- 

 ness is reached, again washed, dried and mounted. The grinding may 

 be done with a file or on a revolving grindstone or with emery on a 

 dentist's lathe 2 , or between pieces of compact pumice stone, followed 



Edited by C. O. Whitman, Clark University, Worcester, Mass. 



2 Nealey, Am. Mob. Micro. Jour., 1884. 



