seconds with water and rectified spirit, or when water with nitric acid had been used as the reagent. Every effort to photograph these structures failed, the brown non-actinic colour and density of the substance prevented the necessary differentiation, though perfectly visible under the Microscope with careful focusing. These fine fibres appeared in part as continuous bright lines, in part as grey lines, according to the position of the mirror. Unfortunately the stock of osmic acid was exhausted or it would have been used to try and render these fine fibres yet more apparent. Under none of the reagents used did the muscle structure afford any perfect evidence of the peculiar striation belonging to voluntary muscle, but some of the fibrillæ appeared to be made up of minute dots united in line, though how far this may have been inherent to the structure, or how far due to the general coagulation that was apparent in the highly compressed and softened muscle, is doubtful; but this much may be noticed, that the purposely softened muscle in which the nerve-fibrils were most visible, presented no trace of perfect muscular fibrillæ. Although, correctly speaking, not belonging to the microscopical side of this interesting subject, this paper would be much more incomplete without some notice of the acknowledged methods of embalming, for the examination of a specimen kindly sent to me by Prof. Stewart of the Royal College of Surgeons proved absolutely useless, the flesh apparently having been placed in a bath of melted bitumen, or something of the kind, by which all structure was lost, and also in another specimen, for which I was indebted to the kindness of Mr. Shore, manager of the Hartley Institution, Southampton, which was somewhat brittle, and though treated with the same reagents, furnished no satisfactory results; still it is feared, even with this assistance, we shall find no sufficient clue to the method of preservation used in the present case. To enter into all the details would far exceed the limits of this paper, and the subject must, therefore, be but cursorily dealt with. Whatever the origin of embalming, the process was perfected in Egypt. Besides the description given by Herodotus of the different methods, some instructions have been found in the Rhind papyrus. All the great cemeteries had their establishments for the reception and embalming of the dead, and it is stated that in those belonging to the necropolis of Memphis, there were always from 500 to 800 corpses passing through the different processes. Herodotus explains that the brains were removed through the nostrils, the intestines by an incision in the left side of the abdomen, which was then cleaned with palm wine, and afterwards filled with myrrh, cassia, &c., and the body steeped for many days in a solution of natron, an impure soda-salt found in the Natron Lake of the Libyan Desert in Upper Egypt. After the steeping, the body was handed to the swathers and bandaged with gummed cloths, and made ready for the coffin. The cost of the different methods is given as varying from 2437. to 967.-the less costly method. This consisted in filling the abdomen with cedar-tree pitch or pine pitch, the body being steeped in the natron bath, the contents of the abdomen being allowed to escape or eviscerated by other means. The corpse of the poor was placed in natron for many days (70), after rinsing the abdomen with "syrmæa." Asphalt was said to be used with the more costly methods, and wax but rarely. In some cases, it is stated, the body was immersed in melted bitumen. A species of tanning was also employed. Sometimes the viscera, after cleansing, were replaced, but more frequently embalmed separately, and placed in a vase near the mummy, the emptied abdomen being filled with chips of cedar sawdust, and a little natron. The cast linen of the household was usually kept for the bandages. The swathing was begun at the toes and fingers, then carried over the whole body in numberless bands; from 700 to 1200 yards of bandages, or strips three or four inches wide, it is written, have been unrolled from a single mummy. The mummies of Memphis are described as black and brittle, and those of the time of the Hebrews as yellow and flexible, the flesh even yielding to pressure, and the limbs capable of altered position without breaking. This flexibility is supposed to have resulted from the use of very costly injections of chemical solutions into the vessels, as the natron process largely destroyed the structures. The under bandages were dipped in spirit and applied wet. When Syrian turpentine came into use as in Thebes, the mummies were blacker than those of Memphis, both the bandages and body being greatly hardened. In later periods some of the bodies had an ashen grey appearance, others that were treated with bitumen were dark coloured and heavy. The methods described by Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and others, have been more or less confirmed by MM. Jomard, Royer, and Larrey, in their 'Description de l'Égypte. The evisceration by incision is said to have been adopted for the rich. The mummies in which the cavities were filled with aromatic resinous bodies are somewhat olive coloured, with distinct features, the teeth, hair, and eyebrows remaining mostly perfect. Those in which the body had been filled with bitumen, are somewhat reddish, with a hard skin, and are not very alterable on exposure to the atmosphere, the features remaining moderately perfect. Those that have been salted do not differ much from the last, but the hair has generally dropped off, and the features are not so perfect. When the impure bitumen or pisasphalt was usel internally, it was also supposed to have been used very hot, so as to impregnate all the tissues. The bodies that were only salted and dried remain less perfect, the features being destroyed, the hair removed, while the skin is hard and parchmenty. The Egyptian modes of embalming were copied by the Jews, Greeks, and Romans." * The more perfect Jewish method was probably the one employed in preserving the mummy that furnished the muscle that has been the subject of this paper, though this must be accepted as a matter of speculation. The appearances under the Microscope of living and recently dead muscle are not strictly alike, the latter has more opacity besides other differences. The muscle fluid, myosin, has been found to coagulate at 45° C., and the same temperature sets up rigor mortis, and at 75° C. the albuminoids become coagulated. In spite of the diligent physiological and microscopical researches that have been made in studying the complex character of living muscle, we are yet confronted by many For the rules and methods of embalming I am indebted to the pages of the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., the Penny Cyclopædia, and Kitto's Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature. difficulties, and it is doubtful if the last words have yet been said in connection with its attributes and structure; hence we can hardly expect that the dead tissues of remote ages, no matter by whatever method preserved, should be found to closely correspond with the living or recently dead similar structures. We have lost the striation and its doubly refracting power, the sarcolemma and the long pointed nuclei, and how far the chemical substances, myosin, glycogen, inosit, creatin, &c., remain intact in the mummy muscle, is very doubtful. The withdrawal of moisture with the use of materials to delay tissue change we must expect will prevent any very perfect restoration as a whole of this highly delicate complex tissue. With the separation of the bundles of fibres into smaller ones, and these again into finer ones, all of which are held together by connective tissue, until we end at the fibrillæ, we must, it appears, for the present be content in our comparison of the recent muscular structure and the remote dead. To have gained this much with the addition of vessels and nerves, was worth the inquiry. NOTE. Since the foregoing was read, one of the Members of the Council, Mr. Julien Deby, has drawn my attention to a paper by Czermak, published in 1852, containing the result of his examination of two Egyptian mummies, and having most kindly placed the article at my service, I am enabled to add this very brief summary of the interesting details of the microscopical examination. The mummies were those of an adult female and of a lad about 15 years of age, and dating from a period of 2000 years since; the former being in a very marked state of preservation, having been most carefully prepared and wrapped with about 4000 yards of bandages, though not a person of an exalted station. The boy was much damaged, hence the examination chiefly refers to the former. Czermak, after giving a general description of the condition of the different parts of the bodies, and alluding to the method of embalming and the excellent preservation of the female mummy, which he attributes especially to the natron used in the process, passes to the microscopical details, of which he gives thirteen very carefully drawn figures. On referring to these it will be noticed that Czermak was very fortunate, as he found the striation in one of the voluntary muscles-the sphincter of the eyelid by making use of turpentine as the examining medium; but this medium failed entirely in my hands, and also upon making a further trial of the same. He does not appear to have obtained the separation into fibrillæ, as his figure is that of a bundle of fibrils. To accomplish this separation it seemed to me to be necessary to swell the tissues very gradually. There is another most interesting point in Czermak's paper, he having been able to recognise the axis cylinder in the fibres composing the median nerve of the arm. It will need no apology to offer a very brief notice of the microscopical details, as his paper may not be of easy access to many of the Fellows. The following refers to the figures as given in the plate at the end of the paper : 1. The cells with nuclei of a section of the nail of the ring finger of the female mummy. 2. A longitudinal section near the root of the nail. *SB. K. Akad. Wiss. (Math.-Naturw. Cl.), ix. (1852). 3. Hair of the head of the female, showing the sheath. 4. A cross section of the hair near the root. 5. The cells of the inner sheath. 6. Henle's and Huxley's layers. 7. A transverse section of the muscle of the thumb, flexor pollicis longus, treated with water. 8. The cartilage cells of the ear of the small mummy. 9. Section of the cartilage of the patella, with the cells in situ. 10. Cartilage cells from the rib of the female mummy. 11. Nerve-fibres of the median nerve in which besides the nerve-substance the axiscylinder can be also seen. 12. A few muscular fibres from the sphincter of the eyelid as seen in turpentine, showing the striation and other appearances. 13. A section of the fatty layer in the great toe of the adult mummy, with the fat-cells in position. Czermak speaks of one of the former Presidents of the Society, Prof. Quekett, having shown him a figure of the hair of a mummy in one of the Nos. of the Microscopical Journal.' Unfortunately I am unable to specialise the number. It will thus be seen that by the aid of the Microscope it has been possible to touch the fringe, and gather up a few threads of "the frayed border of the royal robe" worn long centuries since, but carefully folded up and laid aside as a legacy to the wardrobe of time. X.-Remarks on the Foraminifera, with especial reference to their (Read 8th June, 1887.) PART I. of this paper, in the Monthly Microscopical Journal' for February 1876, contained a synoptical Table of the published varieties of Cristellaria, from the time of Linné to 1840; and an attempt was made to reduce these numerous figured forms to their proper zoological positions, by referring them to the few best-pronounced types of Cristellaria. In the two plates illustrating the above-mentioned paper, there were figured a series of Foraminifera, all belonging to the Nodosarina; and they exemplified the gradual passage from the straight, many-chambered shell of this kind of Foraminifera to the most perfect spiral form. At the same time it was shown that the cylindrical and compressed shells of varying thickness were merely varieties of the same form. It has been thought advisable to continue the Table as a guide to future workers in this group of Microzoa; and in this paper the Cristellarians are now further zoologically tabulated to the end of 1860. It having been found impossible, for want of space, to include those other groups of Nodosarina which are closely connected with Cristellaria, we have omitted hundreds of references to the many varieties of Marginuline, Vaginuline, and other sub-groups, which cannot, if regarded biologically, be separated from the Cristellariæ. The most striking series of these omitted forms will be found in a paper by Neugeboren, published in the Verh. Mitth. Siebenburg. Ver. Nat., ii. 1851, where a series of forty-five partially-coiled Nodosarinæ are figured, most of which have been elevated by him to the rank of "species." Others are to be found in a paper by M. Cornuel in the Mém. Soc. Géol. France, sér. 2, iii. 1848; in Reuss' "Westphälischen Kreide," SB. K. Akad. Wiss. Wien, xl. 1860, &c. In drawing up the Table, five forms have been selected as the chief types around which to group the Cristellariæ; these are, C. calcar (Linné), representing the keeled and rowelled forms, and of which all spiral Cristellariæ are specifically varieties; and, as convenient subvarieties of this, C. cultrata (De Montf.), representing the keeled forms; C. rotulata Lam., the keelless forms; C. italica (Defr.), the triangularelongate forms; and C. crepidula (Fichtel and Moll), including all compressed-elongate forms. It must, however, be understood that these five varieties are not themselves to be considered as really distinct, but are used merely as available heads of divisions into which the Cristellaria may be sorted. Some few subordinate names are kept, with the alliances indicated. In the Table, the middle column gives the names bestowed by different authors upon the varieties which they have described as "species." Those names which we consider to be of sufficient value to be kept for classificatory purposes have been printed in larger type; while, on the other hand, those which are unmistakably the same as our recognised types are printed in smaller type, to indicate the advisability of allowing their pseudo-specific name to drop. There is certainly |