NOTES. 569 
strie with singular beauty. The “lines” appearing to shine with 
golden lustre. Specimens of Frustulia saxonica (very small) that 
have persistently defeated a fine modern ,sth in my possession, 
my Tolles wet 45, ag also a ;',th belonging to a friend, surrender 
at once to this 4th giving strong transverse strie. The markings 
of Surriella gemma (dry mounted) are shown very strongly. 
Either as dots or hexagons, mounted in balsam the markings are 
much stronger than I have before seen with any lens. The behav- 
ior of this 1th over Cymatopleura elliptica excited my unqualified 
admiration. In short “ this most interesting glass,” goes satisfac- 
torily through my collection of test diatoms. The illumination 
used was (for the most part) from a German student’s lamp. 
maximum performance of the 4th is obtained by working through 
a thick cover, say 74th of an inch; with such a cover the objective 
works well dry, using central or nearly central light. Perhaps 
the most valuable property of the new 4th will be recognized in 
its superior performances by centrally disposed light. With the 
experience I have had of the ith in this direction I am forced to 
the conclusion that these new system glasses of Mr. Tolles will 
become equally valuable to histologists and diatomists. — J. Ep- 
WARDS Smitu, Ashtabula, O., July, 1874. 
NOTES. 
Tae Hartrorp Meere of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science was in several ways a great success. The 
register exhibited the names of about 225 old members who were 
present, and 118 new members were elected. 165 papers were 
entered, ten of which were not passed by the Standing Committee 
for the want of abstracts, and twenty others were either withdrawn 
by their authors or declined by the Sectional Committees, leaving 
sixty-six papers in Section A, and sixty-nine in Section B. Of 
those in Section B, ten were given by title only, and the rest were 
read by their authors before the section or proper subsection, and 
Were more or less discussed. Section A formed a subsection of 
chemistry on Monday afternoon, which was very strongly repre- 
sented and held its session until Tuesday evening. The additional 
‘terest taken by the chemists in the Hartford meeting was un- 
doubtedly owing to the resolutions passed at Northumberland, by 
Which they declared that it was unadvisable to form a separate 
