1883 ] Scientific News, G03 
_TsRetFatt’s Metuop oF Fixing Secrions.—Mr. Threlfall has 
discovered a method for fixing sections on the slide which will 
be found superior to that of Frenzel, described in the July num- 
ber of this journal. 
“A thin solution of caoutchouc in benzine or chloroform is 
prepared and poured over the slide so as to forma film in the 
same way that collodium is poured on a photographic plate. 
When the film is dry the sections are arranged on it, and the tem- 
perature of the slide raised to the melting point of paraffine; the 
sections then fall on to the India rubber film which has become 
sufficiently sticky to adhere to them perfectly. When the slide is 
cold it is treated with naphtha or any light paraffine oil, the sol- 
vent action being more rapid the lower the boiling point of the 
oil used. 
Absolute alcohol is readily miscible with the naphtha or light 
paraffine, so that the solvent is readily removed. The slide can 
now placed in successive alcohols, stained and returned to 
absolute alcohol. It is now to be cleared with creosote or oil of 
cloves and mounted in the ordinary way. Apart from the great 
advantage of being able to stain on the slide, this India rubber 
method seems to possess some points of superiority over the 
shellac method of Giesbrecht, Zool. Anzeiger, 1881. This depends 
on the fact that sections can be mounted iu balsam direct from the 
naphtha—Zool. Anzeiger, No. 140, p. 300, 188}. 
—:0:—— 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
— Baron Nordenskjold’s expedition to Greenland started last 
week in the Sofia, under the command of Captain Nilsson, and a 
crew of thirteen hands. Baron Nordenskjold is accompani 
Dr. Nathorst, geologist; Dr. Berlin, surgeon and botanist; Dr. 
Forsstrand, zovlogist; Dr. Hamberg, hydrographer; two Lap- 
landers, two Norwegian ice-masters, one harpooner, and Herr 
Kolthoff as assistant zoologist, with Herr Kjellstrom as typogra- 
pher and photographer. The Sofa carries provisions sufficient 
for a sojourn of fourteen months on the inland ice, assuming that 
the interior of Greenland is covered by ice. The Sofia had as 
passengers to Iceland Count Stromfeldt, Dr. Arpi, and Herr Flink, 
who intend staying in the island for some time for the purposes 
of study and collecting. 
— M. Fredericq, of Liege, says the English Mechanic, lately 
put several aquatic coleoptera (including the great water beetle 
in aqueous solutions of curare and strychnine in poisonous quan- 
tity. A few drops of these liquors sufficed to poison a frog in a 
few minutes. The insects, however, lived in them, some more 
than a fortnight, others nearly a month (when the experiment was 
concluded). These Coleoptera are certainly sensible to the action 
of curare and strychnine, and the absence of symptoms of poison- 
