1879O 
Notices of Books . 
135 
heads. But all is accomplished safely, and a settlement is made 
at Mars Bay, as they call it, where the opposition of Mars is 
successfully observed. 
But with the end of the work the end of the book by no means 
coincides. Excursions are made to the Green Mountain, Wide- 
awake Fair, and other places of interest, which Mrs. Gill describes 
as pleasantly and chattily as St. Helena ; and only after Christ- 
mas spent in Ascension do they return home. 
It is impossible to do justice to the lively, easy style in which 
“ Six Months in Ascension;’ is written. From the opening chap- 
ter, with the Professor’s story, to the return home at the end, 
interest never once flags, and there is no inclination to skip a 
word. 
But why say any more ? The subjedt is interesting, and if it 
were not it would be made so in the telling. The book must be 
read to be appreciated. 
Section Cutting. A Practical Guide to the Preparation and 
Mounting of Sections for the Microscope. By Dr. Sylves- 
ter Marsh. With Illustrations. 87 pp. London : J. and 
A, Churchill. 
This unpretending little book, professing to be scarcely more than 
a compilation made with a view in saving the student’s time in 
searching numerous books and periodicals, is one of a class of 
treatises of which we have only too few. 
The paste and scissors work of collecfting and putting together 
scattered articles only requires the exercise of a little judgment 
and patience ; but to try every process described, and in many 
cases to give modifications and improvements, as the author of 
this treatise has undoubtedly done, shows that the writing of 
only eighty-seven pages may involve a vast amount of real and 
original work. 
Part I. of the book treats of Sedtion Cutting in general, and 
describes all the well-known processes, with a great many useful 
hints, which will render the work much more hopeful to those 
who are commencing this difficult branch of microscopical in- 
vestigation. The method of treating those tissues which require 
preparation before cutting is given very fully, considering the 
small space at the author’s disposal. The Sedtion Cutter, or 
Microtome,* is described at some length, the author laying great 
stress upon the necessity of obtaining a good instrument if fine 
sedtions are required. The points to be attended to in seledting 
* This term in some microscopical works is applied to a cutting instrument 
made like a small pair of sheepshears. 
