( 35 ) 
NEW BOOKS, WITH SHORT NOTICES. 
Journal de Micrographie. Revue mensuelle des Travaux Frangais 
et Etrangers, publiee sous la direction du Dr. J. Pelletan. No. 1. 
May 15, 1877. G. Masson : 10, Rue Hautefeuille, Paris.— This is the 
opening number of a new venture. It is really the first attempt of 
the French to establish a journal devoted exclusively to microscopic 
matters. In Germany they have what used to be Max Schultze’s 
‘ Archiv ’ ; in England we have two journals devoted to microscopic 
pursuits. In America there is also a monthly 4 J ournal of Micro- 
scopy.’ But France was till now without any representative periodical 
of the field of microscopy. Now, however, it is no longer so. The 
first number of M. le Dr. Pelletan’s journal has appeared, and it bids 
fair to supply a decided want ; while, if its future numbers equal that 
which has already been published, we shall welcome most heartily 
its entrance into the field. We shall now give a brief sketch of the 
plan which the editor has laid down for himself to follow. He pro- 
mises to keep his readers au courant of the principal facts, discoveries, 
publications, and public courses of lectures relative to micrography. 
He also tells them that he will keep them informed as to the various 
novelties in the microscope itself, and the numerous accessory instru- 
ments that belong to it. Questions of optics, too, which have relation 
to the microscope will find a place in his journal. Finally, he states 
that he will have a certain space devoted to the correspondence of his 
readers, and that he will, when necessary, have a series of illus- 
trations, both in the form of woodcuts and engraved plates. 
It will thus be seen that the editor’s address promises well for the 
new periodical. We shall now see how he has at first attempted to 
carry out this programme. The opening portion of the volume, that 
headed Revue, appears to be the editorial part, and it contains some 
valuable abstracts, and some titles of papers which will be reviewed in 
future numbers. A portion of this department has to do with conti- 
nental work, but a good deal of it consists in abstracts of the essays, 
&c., which have appeared in the pages of the 4 Monthly Microscopical 
Journal.’ Indeed, it would be impolite on our part if we did not here 
express our thanks to Dr. Pelletan for his extremely courteous notice 
of the contents of this magazine. One of the most valuable parts of 
this portion of the review is his notice of Dr. Wallich’s researches on 
the Diatomaceas. Other papers are also abstracted ; as, for example, 
Dr. Stahl on the reproduction of Mosses ; M. Magnus on the same 
subject ; Dr. Brandt on the ova of Ascaris ; Mr. P. H. Carpenter on the 
anatomy of Crinoids ; and Dr. Abbe’s paper on the employment and appli- 
cation of the microscope. The original memoirs in the present number 
of the journal are not original, inasmuch as one of them is on “ The 
Electric Organ of the Torpedo,” a series of lectures delivered before 
the College of France ; and the other a paper by M. Abbe, with which 
our readers are already familiar, on 44 The Theory of the Microscope.” 
The reviewing department contains a good notice of MM. Bornet and 
