224 
NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 
power read the subjacent lines with approval : — " The fresh blood of 
a fowl was whisked with a fork to separate the fibrine from the liquid 
portion. The fibrine was next dissolved in dilute caustic potash, to 
which was added acetic acid until the precipitate ceased to form ; a 
portion of it will ultimately float on the top ; remove a portion of it 
by means of a clean glass rod, and place it on a microscopic slide ; 
add to it one drop of transparent solution of tincture of iodine, 
followed immediately by one drop of concentrated muriatic acid ; then 
examine it carefully under a power of about 150 diameters, for starch, 
if it is present, will appear in granules of a blue or purple colour. At 
this stage of the process these chemicals will not convert amylaceous 
cellulose into starch, even if present. To this same mixture add one 
drop of concentrated sulphuric acid ; place a glass disk over the 
contents, and blue amylaceous matters in various forms will probably 
be found ; but should there be an entire absence of blue colour, and 
opaque brown particles appear, remove the disk and apply the 
chemicals again as before. Should too much sulphuric acid be 
employed, the whole colouring mass will be dissolved. The amy- 
laceous matter present at the same time appears, when superfluous 
sulphuric acid is used, in white translucent bodies, dissolving in 
streaks ; but the proper admixture of iodine solution with muriatic 
and sulphuric acid will give the desired results. Many experiments 
will need to be made by microscopists before sufficient expertness and 
satisfactory results can be obtained. That portion of the blood which 
remains after the fibrine has been removed from it has been examined 
for starch granules, but none were found ; when tested for amy- 
laceous cellulose a trace of it appeared. I conclude, as a result of 
hundreds of experiments, that amylaceous cellulose is combined with 
the fibrine of the blood, arterial and veinous, and may be detected in 
even a minute portion of it, in the manner described." * 
Wythe's Illuminator. — In the ' American Naturalist ' (July), 
Dr. J. H. Wythe recommends for oblique illumination a right-angled 
prism with a plano-convex lens, cemented to and covering one of its 
narrow sides, and an ordinary French triplet fastened to the other, 
close to the farthest angle. Arranged with the plano-convex lens 
directly downward, the axis of the triplet would be horizontal, and a 
horizontal cone of achromatic light would be furnished ; while by 
slightly tilting the apparatus, an available and extremely oblique 
illumination is obtained. 
* 'Monthly Report of the Department of Agriculture,' June, 1876, 
