NOTES AND QUERIES. 257 
of preparation are given at some length and are peculiarly interesting. 
No. 12 is devoted to the T. V. Section of a leaf, the Rhododendron 
jponticum, and we consider that on the whole this is the best plate 
Messrs. Watson have turned out. It is exceedingly natural, and 
represents truly what is seen under the microscope. No. 13 treats 
of the Human Kidney. No. 14, a section of the leaf of the Colts- 
foot ( Zussilago Farfara) with @cadium composttarum var. tusstla- 
ginis in situ. The slides accompanying the paper show the cup-like 
character of the fungus in all its details, very well indeed. The 
last number gives an illustration of a horizontal section of the papil- 
lary portion of human kidney, with full descriptions. 
LepisMA SACCHARINA.—Prof. A. Liversedge writes to the Royal 
Microscopical Society to confirm the description of a bookworm 
which is given by Hooke in his Micrographia of 1665, but has 
been ridiculed by Blade in his “ Enemies of Books” (1881). The 
insect in question (Zefisma saccharina) is found in New South 
Wales, and other of the warmer parts of Australia, and is known 
as the silver fish. It is very destructive to books and papers, 
especially when the latter are loose, and access to the different 
portions is easy. Labels seem to have a special attraction, and 
the Professor encloses some specimens which have been written 
about fifteen months, but rendered entirely useless by the ravages 
of the Lepisma. He suggests that the labels should be saturated 
with a poison previous to use. ‘The writer says it may be that the 
Lepisma preys upon the pseudo scorpions (chelifer) which are 
always found in the same neighbourhood, but he does not think 
this is the case. 
Cuemicat Composition oF Moutps.—We learn from the Journ. 
of Pract. Chem. xxiii. (1881) pp. 412-21, that a growth of pure, 
Aspergillus, Mucor, and Penicillium, has been obtained by N. Sieber, 
who rendered the fluid selected for the purpose unsuitable for the 
growth of Schizomycetes by having free phosphoric acid present. 
From the alcohol and ether extract, small crystals of an as yet 
unknown substance were obtained, but the extract itself consisted 
entirely of albumen and cellulose, nor was the allumenoid present 
in the form of mycoprotein. 
MorPHOLOGY AND GENETIC RELATIONSHIP OF PATHOGENOUS 
BacreriA.—Dr. F. Haberkorn has published in the Bot. Centralb. 
x. (1882) pp. 100-6, the results of his investigations in this direc- 
tion. He says that spherobacteria, microbacteria, desmobacteria, 
and spirobacteria are not, as Cohn would have them, four distinct 
tribes, but all forms of one genus, In the case of malaria, typhus 

