ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
541 
only for Anguillulidm, but also for numerous other groups of the 
smaller animals and plants.” 
Mode of Studying Phagocata.* * * § — Mr. W. M. Woodworth found that 
the best reagent for killing these worms is hot corrosive sublimate ; an 
excess of the salt is added to the saturated aqueous solution, and the whole 
is heated to the boiling point ; by this means a very strong solution can 
be obtained. A modification of Kennel’s process, viz. a cold saturated 
solution of corrosive sublimate in 50 per cent, nitric acid, was used with 
entire success. For the study of the intestinal tract, unstained specimens 
were cleared in clove oil. For staining, Grenacher’s alcoholic borax- 
carmine, followed by differentiation with acid alcohol, proved to be the 
most useful method. Good sections for topographical study were obtained 
by staining in this carmine for twenty-four hours, and cutting, in the 
horizontal plane, sections 30 /x in thickness. With this light staining 
the nerve-tissue takes none of the colour, and in such comparatively 
thick sections the finer branches show as white lines against a red 
background. Orth’s picrocarminate of lithium is a valuable reagent for 
all glandular tissues, as the picric acid brings them sharply out ; this is 
also an excellent reagent for macerating. The osmic-acetic method of 
maceration was also successful. Isolated living pharynges were killed 
in hot 1 per cent, silver nitrate for the purpose of demonstrating the 
epithelium. Depigmenting was accomplished by the use of a 1 per 
cent, solution of potassic hydrate, which was allowed to act for a few 
minutes on sections fixed to the slide with Schallibaum’s clove-oil 
collodion fixative. 
Study of Rhizopods. | — Mr. S. H. Perry recommends the mounting 
of testaceous Rhizopods in glycerin-jelly rather than balsam, as the 
specimens do not become too transparent, and the protoplasm is preserved. 
Examples should be picked out singly with a fine camel’s-hair brush, 
under powers of from 25 to 125 diameters, and transferred to a drop of 
glycerin, where they can be kept till required for mounting. 
Demonstration of Cilia of Zoospores.J — Prof. J. E. Humphrey re- 
commends for this purpose, especially in the case of Fungi, a 1 per cent, 
solution of osmic acid, which is left for a few minutes to fix the spores 
thoroughly, and then drawn off by means of filter-paper. A staining- 
fluid is then applied, consisting of a drop of a moderately strong solution 
in 90 per cent, alcohol of Hanstein’s rosanilin-violet composed of equal 
parts of fuchsin and methyl-violet. This stains both the cilia and the 
body of the zoospores very quickly and deeply. By this method the 
author was able to demonstrate that the zoospores of an Adilya allied to 
A. polyandra are ciliated. 
(3) Cutting:, including- Imbedding- and Microtomes. 
Preparation and Imbedding of the Embryo Chick.§— Messrs. S. H. 
Gage and G. S. Hopkins write : — “ An excellent method of preparing 
blastoderms of the chick, of from 1 to 96 hours incubation, both for 
* Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., xxi. (1891) pp. 6-7. 
f Amer. Mon. Micr. Journ., xii. (1891) p. 80. 
X Bot. Gazette, xvi. (1891) pp. 71-3. 
§ Proc. Amer. Soe. Micr., 1890, pp. 128— 13 J . 
