( US ) 
i88 3 .] 
NOTES. 
C'jr attention has been called to the subjoined paragraph in the 
“ Secular Review.” If a simple record of fadts it is of capital 
value, as proving that some dogs have a conception of number 
at least up to twelve, which is more than can be safely said of 
some human races : — “ A lady friend of mine has a bull bitch 
that is very wise, and is a Neo-Malthusian. She one day gave 
birth to fifteen pups. Counting her offspring, and then her 
feeding apparatus, she saw at once that there was a surplus 
population. Fifteen in family ; food supply for only twelve ; no 
workhouse for the three little extras. The venerable Malthus 
could not have solved the difficulty more promptly. Counting up 
her teats once more, and also her offspring, she seledted three 
and put her sharp teeth through their brains, and by their 
prompt and painless extinction made a manageable and happy 
family.” 
The “Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society ” for De- 
cember, 1882, contains a translation of a paper giving a full 
account of the methods of microscopical research in use at the 
Zoological Station at Naples. The collection of formulae for 
killing, hardening, and preserving is very extensive : the proper- 
ties of the various solutions are discussed at considerable length, 
and full manipulative details given. Mounting in balsam seems 
to be the mode of preservation most in favour at Naples, and the 
whole series of processes employed aim at getting rid entirely of 
the water contained in the tissues, and replacing it with a pre- 
servative medium. When the absolute permanency of balsam 
preparations is taken into consideration, and also the faCt that 
specimens from the establishment are transmitted to all parts of 
the world, there is a good reason for the adoption of balsam- 
mounting almost to the entire exclusion of other methods. The 
preparations of marine animals issued by the Zoological Station 
are well known to histologists for the perfect manner in which 
the processes of staining and permanently mounting are carried 
out, and also for their great biological value. The paper is the 
natural outcome of an institution which has no secret processes 
to withhold, and whose only objeCt is research and the widest 
possible diffusion of the results. The translation will prove of 
the greatest value to English histologists, and furnishes another 
of the numerous instances in which the Royal Microscopical 
Society has placed translations of important foreign papers in 
the hands of its fellows as speedily as possible after their issue. 
