158 



Miscellaneous. 



MR. HECKL's METHOD OF CLOSING GLASS JARS, 



The specimens of fish in the Museum of Vienna which are kept in 

 spirits are inclosed in glass jars covered with a flat glass disc ; these 

 discs are made at the same time as the bottles and sent in with them 

 from the Bohemian glass-houses. They and the surface of the lips of 

 the jars are ground together so as exactly to fit each other, and 

 they have an oblique edge shelving towards the inner side, so that 

 when they are placed on the top of the jar there is a small triangular 

 space all round between the upper edge of the disk and the upper 

 outer edge of the lip of the jar, which is left to hold a quantity of 

 the composition by which they are luted. This composition con- 

 sists of six ounces of white wax and three drachms each of sper- 

 maceti and hog's lard mixed together; and Mr. Heckl, who has made 

 many experiments, assured me, that if it was well applied between 

 the two surfaces and filled into the triangular space above referred 

 to, not the least evaporation was observable in bottles that had been 

 set aside for the purpose for more than two years, though some 

 of them had been set upside down to bring the spirit in connexion 

 with the mixture. Indeed so much confidence has Mr. Heckl in the 

 method, that he has had the disk pierced with a small central slit to 

 enable him to support his specimens with silk, only having a small 

 concavity ground out of the upper surface of the disk round the hole, 

 which he fills with this composition. There is a specimen jar of the 

 kind in the British Museum. — J. E. Gray. 



STANDS FOR BIRDS, &C 



In the Vienna Museum the newer specimens of Birds and the 

 smaller mammalia are placed on stands with oval bases ; this is far 

 superior to the round or square bases which are usually adopted in 

 English and French collections, as it gives a larger space for the 

 label without occupying more room, which is often much wanted, 

 and at the same time prevents the birds being knocked against each 

 other by accident. — J. E. Gray. 



THE GENUS GYNAMEDA, GRAY. 



The body which I described under this head in Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society, is evidently only the basal joint of the body of 

 the English species of Comatula, the impressed dots on the convex 

 part being the scars left by the dorsal claspers; and the single open- 

 ing and the cavity in the fiat part are doubtless analogous to the 

 roundish or five-rayed cavity in the joints of the stem of the Enir- 

 mitis. This fact I have verified by comparing the specimens I de- 

 scribed with one of those joints separated from a complete speci- 

 men, but it is curious how the two specimens which were described 

 should have been found so completely isolated in the sand; for I had 

 great difficulty, even after soaking the specimen in water for some days, 



