6g6 
Notes . 
i., 1882, pp. 436 to 454; ii., 1882, pp. 71 to 91). Most of the 
processes used in the examination of animal tissues have been 
brought to great perfection ; the same elaborate methods do not 
seem hitherto to have been applied to the study of vegetable 
structures ; in fact, the subject is rather behindhand. The fol- 
lowing subjects are discussed : — Clarification, Fixation of Forms, 
Contraction, Precipitation and Crystallisation, Dissolution and 
Destruction, Colouring, Preservation. A full account is given 
of the various reagents employed, and manner of observing 
tissues under such treatment. The Anti-Vivisectionists may 
probably object to experiments on living tissues, having for their 
object the induction of contraction in the cell-contents, and the 
staining of living organisms, as was done by Certes, for exhibi- 
tion to the members of the Zoological Society of -France : pro- 
bably English botanists may ere long be compelled to boil their 
plants before experimenting on them. The colours available for 
this purpose are aqueous solutions of cyanine and aniline brown 
(Bismarck brown). “These results are important: by taking 
these into consideration in the future we may be able to study, 
on the living subject, the phenomena of conjugation and repro- 
duction in the Algae and Infusoria, instead of being, as hitherto, 
confined to the study of the organisms killed in different stages 
of their evolution.” This process will probably give good results 
with some of the lower Algse, which have hitherto involved much 
tedious observation. With respeCt to mounting in Canada 
balsam, exception must be taken to the statement “ that, by 
reason of the difference of the refractive powers, it is preferable 
for the preservation of diatoms.” Mr. J. W. Stephenson has 
shown that its refraCtive index is too close to that of diatoma- 
ceous silex, and that media of higher refraCtive index can be 
used with the result of producing much greater visibility 
(“Journal of Science,” 1881 and 1882). The references to au- 
thorities are very numerous, but, after the usual custom of 
French and German authors, the existence of any English ob- 
servers is studiously ignored. The paper is a valuable one, and 
might have remained unknown to the majority of English students 
but for the enterprise of the Royal Microscopical Society. 
The same number also contains an exhaustive and beautifully 
illustrated paper, by C. T. Hudson, LL.D., F.R.M.S., “ On 
Asplanchna Ebbesbornii, a New Rotifer.” This is a valuable 
contribution to Science. It is to be hoped that Dr. Hudson’s 
monograph may soon appear, as information respecting the 
Rotiferae is at present scattered through the periodical literature 
of many years. 
