NOTES AND QUERIES. 323 




particles of carmine or indigo from the water in which they live. In 
a weak solution of quinoliéne blue or cyanin the organisms will 
take a faint blue colour so long as thirty-six hours before death, 
but with this exception the cells do not become tinged till life is 
extinct. The colour is deepest in the fatty granulations of the pro- 
toplasm, and is scarcely seen in the nuclei, while the vibratile cilia, 
the cuticle, and the pulsating vacuoles are intermediate. This 
renders it easy to watch the phenomena of the division of the 
nucleus in the living animal undergoing division, and affords 
another proof of the difference in composition between cellular 
and nuclear protoplasm. The aqueous solution of cyanin which 
should be used for these experiments, is an excellent reagent for 
fatty matter. An alcoholic solution, like osmic acid, fixes the 
form of many species.—American Monthly Micro. Journal. 
STAINING FAT-CELLS IN THE Fascia oF A CALF’s NEcK.—Dr. 
W. R. Weisiger, Manchester, Va., U.S.A.—After soaking for from 
half-an-hour to three hours in a half per cent. solution of osmic 
acid, the portion of the fascia is placed for fifteen minutes in a 
solution consisting of carmine } dr., borax 2 dr., water 4 oz, It is 
then washed quickly and mounted in glycerine, to every ounce of 
which two drops of formic acid have been added.—American 
Monthly Micro. Journal. 
Disrast GERMS.—The common belief that the air is always full 
of the spores of fungoid growths is an erroneous one, as the quan- 
tity present depends largely upon the weather, and at times very 
few are to be found. There is a not less general opinion that all 
these bodies are injurious to health, but this notion, which doubtless 
originates from the belief held by most medical authorities that 
certain of these spores are the germs of specific diseases, is disproved 
by facts, as there are many kinds which though very abundant at 
times exercise no injurious influence on the system.—A. R. D. 
Cover-Gtiass.—We learn from the Zeitschrift fiir Instrumenten- 
kunde that Germany is competing with England in the manufacture 
of thin cover-glass, of which Messrs Chance of this country have 
hitherto enjoyed a monopoly. Dr. Otto Schott has discovered a 
method of making at a less cost glass equal in quality to that now 
used. Messrs. Halme and Schott, Annen bei Witten, Westphalia, 
are the manufacturers. 
Srarninc NucLer or SprroGyra.—The Editor of the American 
Monthly Micro. Journal gives the following method. After being 
killed with alcohol the plant is allowed to remain for several hours 
in a perfectly neutral solution of carmine. When well stained, the 
excess of carmine is removed by washing with water or glycerine, 
and the specimen mounted in the usual manner. 
