ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
691 
water, and therefore complete dehydration is not absolutely necessary. 
With regard to dammar and balsam, it is only necessary to say that 
the latter is probably the more useful, owing to its high refractive index, 
although there seems little to choose between the two media. For this 
technique balsam is dissolved in chloroform xylol or turpentine, dammar 
in benzol, or xylol. 
For staining vegetable tissue, Bismarck brown holds a prominent 
place : a small quantity of this pigment is shaken up with spirit, and 
half the bulk of water added. Only a clear filtrate must be used. This 
solution is allowed to act for J-3 minutes, and appears to give great 
satisfaction. The next pigment is safranin : the solid pigment is dis- 
solved in spirit, and an equal volume of water added. 
Alum and borax carmine are then discussed, both of them are made 
up according to Grenadier’s formula: both have their merits, but the 
latter has to be differentiated with an acid solution. 
Delafield’s alum haematoxylin also is extremely serviceable and 
easy of manipulation, and if over-staining occur, the excess is easily 
removable by means of a faintly acid solution. Notwithstanding the 
contrasts developed by the use of different pigments or the appearance 
of different shades, indicating the differences of chemical reaction or of 
structure, the author advises that these should be compared with un- 
stained sections mounted in the gum and acetate of potash solution. 
Cl) Collecting Objects, including Culture Processes. 
Apparatus for Cultivating Anaerobic Micro-organisms on Solid 
Transparent Media.* — Ur. A. Trambusti describes an apparatus which 
he has devised for cultivating and examining anaerobic microbes. 
It is made of glass and consists of two parts, the lower of which 
resembles an inverted funnel while the upper one is cylindrical. In 
the latter are two openings, the top one tightly closed with a stopper 
while that at the bottom is very small. Inside the cylinder is a smaller 
one which is in communication with the funnel-shaped flask or lower 
portion of the apparatus. The apparatus is used as follows: — The 
medium, already inoculated, is spread on the bottom of the flask and then 
this is closed by placing the cylinder on it. Into the latter is then 
poured as much of the ordinary pyrogallate of potash solution as may be 
necessary to absorb all the air in the apparatus. The stopper having 
been put in, the whole apparatus is placed in the thermostat. Two grm. 
of pyrogallic acid to 15 ccm. of 1 in 10 potash solution are sufficient 
to extract all the oxygen. 
Colonies of anaerobic micro-organisms are said to thrive very well 
in this apparatus and are quite easily isolated. The apparatus has the 
further advantage that the growth of the colonies is easily examined 
through the thin bottom and their shape studied just as in Petri’s flasks. 
If the pyrogallate solution be shaken up occasionally the absorption 
of the oxygen is accelerated. 
Apparatus for Cultivating Anaerobic Bacteria.! — Prof. M. Ogata 
describes a simple and easily made apparatus which he has used success- 
fully for the cultivation of anaerobic microbes for some years. 
* Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xi. (1892) pp. 623-4 (1 fig.), 
f Tom. cit.. pp. 621-3 (2 figs.). 
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