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CORRESPONDENCE AND GLEANINGS. 
Dr. Forbes Watson, who is about to return to India, has promised 
to give the Society of Arts a paper embodying the results of his 
recent experiments on Rheea fibre. 
The appointment of Dr. E. B. Tylor to a readership in anthro¬ 
pology at the University of Oxford, is an official recognition of that 
modern science which has given great satisfaction to anthropologists. 
Lieut. Hovgaard, commander of the “ Dijmphna ’’Arctic Expe¬ 
dition, is returning with valuable collections of marine fauna and 
botanical species. His observations of the aurora, and of arctic 
meteorology generally, are also very complete. 
Dr. Stecker, who is now returning from his travels in Abyssinia, 
brings with him a valuable collection of plants, birds, insects, fossils, 
and articles of anthropological interest. The specimens of the Gojam 
flora, which is but little known, number about 2000. 
The Scientific Koll. —Mr. A. Ramsay (4, Cowper Road, Acton, W.) 
asks for more subscribers to enable him to complete the first volume 
(price 10/-) of this very useful publication. Vol. I. deals with 
Meteorology, and is devoted to the literature of that science. 
The Scottish Meteorological Society will shortly publish the 
results of the observations made at Loch Fyne, Eyemouth, and 
Peterhead during the past summer by Messrs. Herdman, Beddard, 
and Hoyle, together with the results of Mr. Norman’s investigations 
as to the food of fishes in the Scottish lochs. 
Cement for Objects Mounted in Spirits of Wine.— At the meeting 
of the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society on 
October 30, 1883, Mr. Thomas Clarke exhibited a number of slides of 
Leptodora hyalina, Hyalodaphiiia Kahlbergemis, and other entomostraca, 
mounted in spirits of wine, 64 over proof. These were in an excellent 
state of preservation, the Leptodora especially being a beautiful object, 
remarkable for its transparent clearness and the perfection with which 
every organ of its body could be traced, as if the creature were still 
living, although it had been mounted for many months; more 
important still, the cement was as perfect as on the day when the cell 
was first closed. Mr. Clarke said that the cement used was manu¬ 
factured by a friend of his who preferred to keep the secret, but a 
sixpenny bottle could be obtained by any one on application, by letter 
or otherwise, to the Sub-curator of the Society, at the Mason College. 
By using this the microscopic mounter can overcome the great and 
hitherto insuperable difficulty of preserving entomostraca, etc., in a 
state suitable for future examination. As an auxiliary for securing 
the adhesion of the cement, Mr. Clarke stated that the slides were 
roughened (in fact yroiind) in a circle just outside the coverglass, where 
the cement came in contact with it; this was effected by the use of 
hydrofluoric acid.—W. B. G. 
of Soticfies. 
BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY.— 
Microscopical General Meeting, Oct. 30.—Mr. J. E. Bagnall exhibited 
Sphagnum papillosum, S. rubellum, S. auriculatum (three rare mosses), from 
Marston Green; Agaricns tuberosus, from Middleton, Russula drimeia, from 
