Microscopical Society of Victoria. 101 
method fall into disuse. It is suited equally well for dry, balsam, 
or fluid mounts, provided they be transparent, with a sufficient 
space round the object not covered by paper. Those objects that 
are well resolved without it receive little or no benefit from it; 
but it is a most valuable accessory in the case of those objects 
that are resolved with difficulty, or only almost resolved without 
it. 
Notes on Dry and Balsam Mounting. 
By W. M. Bale. 
[Read 24tli February, 1831.] 
(1.) Dew or Moisture in Dry Mounts.—The last number of the 
Journal of the lloyal Microscopical Society contains some remarks 
on the subject of the moisture or dew which frequently settles on 
the inner surface of the cover-glass of cells in which objects have 
been dry-mounted. My attention was attracted to this article 
owing to the fact that this particular difficulty has always 
confronted me in mounting objects dry; indeed, in my own 
experience, it has proved (rather than Canada balsam) the true 
j pons asinorum in the art of mounting, since I have never yet 
succeeded in finding a plan by which objects can be mounted dry 
with any certainty that the covering-glass will not soon become 
covered with a fine dew, which may be sufficiently dense to injure 
the definition of the object, and which will be particularly 
objectionable when delicate specimens, such as diatoms or insect 
scales, are mounted on the cover. From the slight attention paid 
to this subject in works on mounting, I at one time imagined that 
I was singular in finding this difficulty, but the appendix to Dr. 
Carpenter’s work on the Microscope (fifth edition) shows that the 
author recognised the difficulty without apparently being able to 
suggest a preventive, as he merely proposes to use cells of a 
mixture of wax and balsam, in order that the cover may at any 
time be easily detached and cleaned from the moisture. The 
remarks above alluded to were elicited by some articles which 
have appeared in the American microscopical journals. Dr. H. L. 
Smith advises the abandonment of wax cells, of which he is said 
to be the inventor, on the ground of their tendency to encourage 
the deposition of moisture, while Mr. Cox, in reply, says that all 
