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NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Practical Photomicrography. By J. Edwin Barnard, F.R.M.S. 

 8J X 6 in., xii + 322 pages, with 79 illustrations and 10 

 plates. London, 1911. Edward Arnold. Price 15s. net. 



The ability to write a book on the above subject nowadays 

 implies a wide knowledge of three diverse subjects. The writer 

 should be well acquainted with the finer side of mechanical 

 engineering, he should be fully at home in the difficult subject of 

 microscopic optics, and, lastly, chemistry, as required in photo- 

 graphic processes, should withhold no secret from him. 



As one would naturally expect from the ofiicial position which 

 Mr. Barnard so worthily holds, these three desiderata are amply 

 fulfilled in his book Practical Photomicrograph ij . The adjective 

 in this case is no misnomer ; "practical " the book is to the last 

 degree. 



In our mind, it has long been a subject worthy of discussion, 

 revolutionary though it may seem, as to what extent the micro- 

 scope should be discussed in a work on the above subject. In 

 our experience, we have never met a photographer who purchased 

 a microscope for the pleasure of photographing things at so many 

 hundred diameters ; on the other hand, photographic work for 

 recording purposes eventually becomes a necessity to the micro- 

 scopist, generally long after he has become familiar with the 

 optical properties of his lenses and the adjustments of his 

 instrument, 



Mr. Barnard has evidently realised this point, consequently 

 what we may irreverently call the "makers' catalogue" portion 

 is all but missing from his book. In a like manner the pages of 

 irritating mathematical formulae are excluded in toto and rightly,, 

 as such are better obtained from works exclusively devoted to the 

 subject. 



For the larger and photographic portion of the book we must 

 express our greatest admiration, and particularly as regards the 

 chapter on " General Preliminary Preparations." No detail, how- 

 ever trivial, has escaped Mr. Barnard's attention. His insistence 

 on cleanliness and order in the dark-room is a most admirable^ 



