276 General Notes. 
MICROSCOPY .! 
PLASTER TABLETS FOR MOUNTING ANATOMICAL PREPARA- 
Tions.—Mr. H. Garman, of Champaign, Ill., finds tablets made of 
plaster preferable to most others for mounting anatomical prepara- 
tions. e following communication on this subject has been 
received from Mr. Garman :— 
“ My experiments with this material were made without knowl- 
edge of its use for the purpose in other quarters, and I was sur- 
prised to learn, upon inquiry, that the large white tablets used for 
ordinary alcoholic specimens in the Museum of Comparative Zool- 
ogy were of plaster, and had been cast upon glass. However, I 
believe the manner of making them, and the facility with which 
they can be produced, is not as generally known as it should be, 
and that, as my results were reached independently, the details of 
the method here given may prove of service even to those who are 
accustomed to the use of plaster. I do not know that colored 
uncolored plaster, satisfies most needs in the way of backgrounds. 
Black ink and carmine staining fluids can be Pte | to stain the white 
tablets. But the latter color is not often a desirable one, and if it 
is to be used can be more economically applied by first dissolving 
carmine in water with heat, then adding the plaster, finally casting 
1 Edited by C. O. Whitman, Director of the Lake Laboratory, Mil- 
waukee. 
