WITH THE MICROSCOPE. 335 



example of the destruction of beautiful textures by the process of 

 preparation than was afforded by the preparation of which this drawing 

 is a copy. Not only are the most interesting features of the papilla 

 entirely lost, but the large dark-bordered nerve fibres are disarranged, 

 and the most important part of them completely destroyed or rendered 

 invisible. It is strange that any one should regard the appearances 

 represented in the drawing as natural, or permit himself to conclude 

 that the nerve ended so abruptly. No fine nerve fibres whatever 

 could be seen, nor the nuclei which are connected with these, and 

 which exist in great numbers. It would, of course, be useless to 

 examine such a specimen with high powers, for nothing further could 

 be discovered. As the same objectionable methods of enquiry are 

 still advocated, it is not wonderful that those who adopt them have 

 been led to the conclusion that high powers are useless, that appear- 

 ances observed in specimens prepared according to other methods 

 are fallacious, and that the observations of those who by adopting 

 other plans of enquiry demonstrate new facts, are untrustworthy and 

 products of the author's imagination. It is scarcely possible that 

 the author of such a drawing as fig. 390 can place any confidence 

 in an observer who ventures to represent the things delineated in 

 fig. 389 as accurate copies of nature. He concludes the latter has 

 simply appealed to his imagination. And this is perhaps the only 

 way to defend his own position ; for so many people are in these 

 days ready to believe that an observer who professes to have seen 

 what has not been seen before is but a fanciful speculator, and not 

 an observer at all. 



But it is quite certain that the most delicate constituent nerve fibres 

 of the plexus in the summit of the papillae of the frog's tongue (New 

 Observations upon the Minute Anatomy of the Papillae of the Frog's 

 Tongue, Phil. Trans, for 1864,) can be readily traced by the aid of 

 a twenty-fifth or fiftieth, if the specimen be prepared according to 

 the directions given in p. 290. The finest nerve fibres thus ren- 

 dered visible are indeed so thin and faint, that in a drawing they 

 would be represented by fine single lines. Near the summit of the 

 papilla there is a still more intricate interlacement of nerve fibres, 

 which although scarcely brought out by the twenty-fifth, is very 

 clearly demonstrated by a fiftieth ! In this object the definition of 

 the fibres, as they ramify in various planes one behind another, and 

 interlace almost like basket work, is remarkable. Moreover, the flat 

 appearance of the specimen as seen by the twenty-fifth, gives place 

 to one of considerable depth of tissue and perspective. So that a 

 more correct view of the structure of these papillae is obtained by 

 examining them with a fiftieth of an inch than with a twenty-fifth, 



