ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
681 
Alcoholic Method of Mounting Bryozoa.* — Miss Y. A. Latham, when 
adopting the alcoholic method of mounting, first rings a cell of the brown 
cement and allows it to harden thoroughly ; then, she says, “ cover this 
entirely with balsam and benzol, and when dry again make it slightly 
sticky by a thin line of balsam which fastens down the cover-glass. Ring 
over all another layer of the last cement, and when dry use brown cement 
to completely seal the mount which, when dry, can be finished as the 
mounter wishes. Or, instead of the above method, after the organisms 
have been fixed and coloured, pass them through alcohol 30 per cent., 
50 per cent, 70 per cent., and absolute, the last at least twice, and let them 
stand covered for 2d hours. Replace the spirit by pure benzol, remove 
about a tenth of the alcohol in which the organisms are placed with a 
pipette, and replace by the same amount of benzol ; repeat this a number 
of times (about twelve) at intervals from 10 to 30 minutes. Great care 
must be taken that the benzol mixes thoroughly. After the last addition 
pour the fluid off and substitute pure benzol. At the end of 24 to 48 hours 
in the benzol, according to the size of the object, a fifth part of the 
Canada balsam dissolved in benzol is added ; this is repeated at intervals 
of from a quarter to half an hour ; the objects may now be preserved in the 
tubes till wanted, or mounted at once. In mounting, care must be taken 
that each drop holds in suspension a sufficient variety of the organisms. 
The method is not quite so tedious as it appears from the reading.” 
Kaiser’s Glycerin-Gelatin, j — One part of the best French gelatin is 
macerated in six parts by weight of distilled water for about two hours. 
To these are added seven parts by weight of pure glycerin, and to every 
100 grams of the mixture 1 gram of pure carbolic acid. The whole is then 
warmed for 10-15 minutes with constant stirring until all the lumps 
and flakes which form after the addition of the carbolic acid have dis- 
appeared. The decoction is then filtered through the finest glass-wool, 
which has been previously washed in distilled water, and placed still wet 
in the funnel. 
* Microscope, ix. (1889) p. 141. 
t Bot. Centralbl., i. p. 25. Cf. Jahrb. f. Wiss. Bot. (Pringsheim), xxxi. (1891) 
p. 400. 
