702 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
3 . Technique.* 
Cl) Collecting: Objects, including: Culture Processes. 
Collecting Mollusca-t — Mr. W. H. Dali lias put liis great experience 
at the service of his fellow-workers in a pamphlet entitled £ Instructions 
for Collecting Mollusks, and other useful hints for the Conchologist.’ 
Land-shells, freshwater species, and marine species are considered 
separately. Our ignorance with regard to the eggs of most marine 
Mollusca is pointed out, and there is here certainly an interesting field 
for study and observation. The hints on the use of the dredging 
apparatus and the tow-net will, no doubt, be useful to naturalists at 
large. 
Collecting and Preserving Insects.^ — Dr. 0. Y. Kiley has published 
a very full handbook of this subject. Not only are general methods of 
collecting described, but special hints are given for each large group. 
The chief drawbacks to the use of alcohol as a preservative agent appear 
to be that all hairy specimens are liable to spoil in it, and that Coleoptera 
with soft integuments, if kept too long in it, spread the wing-cases apart. 
Under the head of entomotaxy is considered the preparation of insects 
for the cabinet. After dealing with various other subjects, including 
Museum pests, insect boxes, and economic displays, directions are given 
for rearing, packing, and transmitting insects. There are a few bints 
for the collectors of Arachnids and Myriopoda, and some bibliographical 
hints conclude a work which should be widely useful. 
Examining for Influenza Bacilli. § — Dr. E. Klein records some 
observations on the influenza bacillus, made in December 1889 and Janu- 
ary 1891. The blood was examined on cover-glass films, and in culti- 
vations on gelatin and agar. The blood films were stained with rubin 
and methyl-blue anilin water. In one out of six cases examined, a few 
minute bacilli resembling those described by Pfeiffer and Canon were 
found. The remaining five, as well as the blood-cultivations, were 
negative. 
Microscopical examination of the bronchial sputum showed minute 
thin bacilli, about the thickness of the bacilli of mouse-septicaemia, half 
their length, and most exhibiting the characteristic polar staining. 
Cultivations from the sputum were made by inoculating a few ccm. of salt 
solution with a particle of sputum, and shaking the mixture in a test- 
tube. From this, gelatin-agar and broth tube-cultivations were made. 
In some of the broth tubes incubated at 37°, there appeared in from 
24.-48 hours glassy, fluffy masses at the bottom of the fluid, the super- 
natant broth remaining quite clear. In the agar tubes there were a 
few translucent colonies looking like droplets of water, and some other 
opaque white colonies. In the gelatin tubes there were only white 
liquefying colonies. 
* This subdivision contains (1) Collecting Objects, including Culture Pro- 
cesses ; (2) Preparing Objects ; (3) Cutting, including Imbedding and Microtomes ; 
(4) Staining and Injecting ; (5) Mounting, including slides, preservative fluids, &c. ; 
(6) Miscellaneous. 
t Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 39, part Gr. Washington, 1892, 56 pp. 
X Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 39, part F. Washington, 1892, 147 pp. and 1 pi. 
§ Brit. Med. Journ., 1892, No. 1621, pp. 170-1. 
