REVIEWS—REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
28 
edition is practically a new book. It must have cost the author an 
immense amount of labour, but he may find comfort in the fact that 
his work will—must—find a place in every library, and upon the 
shelves of every geologist. W. J. H. 
Imports of Societies. 
BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL 
SOCIETY.— Microscopical Section, November 1st. Prof. W. Hillhouse, 
M.A., in the chair; the subject being “Plioto-micrograpliy,” with 
practical illustrations, by Mr. John Edmonds, who, after mentioning 
that too much had been made of optical difficulties arising from the 
non-coincidence of the visual and actinic foci of micro-objectives, 
and also of the apparatus required, and explaining the necessity for 
and method of obtaining adequate and equal illumination of the 
object, proceeded to state that his principal purpose was to show how 
plioto-micrographs could be taken at night with the minimum of 
apparatus, by projecting the image of the object upon a sensitive 
plate, having first focussed it either upon an opaque screen formed of 
a plate of opal glass having a dead surface produced by grinding with 
fine emery powder, or upon a transparent glass plate, subject to the 
same process—according to the nature of the object and the amount of 
amplification required—the only other apparatus being an Argand 
petroleum lamp, with a metal chimney, emitting light only from a 
circular opening in front; a bull’s eye condenser; the stand of a 
microscope (the body and eye-piece having been removed); and the 
objective. The room having been darkened, the lecturer projected 
upon the ground glass an image of a mounted Aphrophom spuvuiria 
(cuckoo spit), he then removed the ground screen, and substituted the 
sensitive gelatine dry plate of the kind known as “ Ilford ordinary,” 
quarter-plate size, and after an exposure of twenty seconds, developed, 
fixed, and washed the negative, and placing it in the lantern, exhibited 
an enlarged picture of the insect to the audience. The lecturer then 
showed several photographs of insects, entomostraca, vegetable sections, 
polycistina, &c., taken in the manner described, with objectives 
ranging from four inches to one-sixth inch focus. Messrs. T. H. 
Waller and C. Pumphrey took part in the discussion which followed, 
and Mr. F. J. Cullis spoke in commendation of the process and the 
manner of its exposition. —General Meeting, November 29tli. Prof. 
W. Hillhouse, M.A., exhibited mustard seeds, germinated on a dry 
surface but in moist air, showing finely developed roots in the air, 
with an abundant root-hair system. A potato, which had ger¬ 
minated without light but in two stages, producing, in the first year, 
slender elongated tubers, resembling in form the pseudo-bulbs of many 
orchids, these latter, in the following season, giving rise to the long 
slender stems familiar to us in “sprouting” potatoes. Also, another 
potato, germinated in absolute darkness, which had given rise to a net¬ 
work of slender stems, bearing minute rounded tubers at the ends of 
short branclilets. Mr. Chas. Pumphrey exhibited an ironstone nodule 
with a clay core, from the drift at King’s Norton, which bore a striking 
resemblance to an animal’s tusk, six inches long. —Microscopical Sec¬ 
tion, December 6th. Prof. W. Hillhouse, M.A., exhibited specimens 
of Eucalyptus globulus , showing the different forms of the leaves in 
different stages of its growth. He also explained the benefits arising 
from its antiseptic properties. Mr. J. E. Bagnall, A.L.S., exhibited, 
