122 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



[June 1, 1SG7. 



any information; but our watchword was "onward," 

 and the day was one of the hottest of the three or 

 four hot days which the Exhibition has yet experi- 

 enced. 



Before leaving the subject of this Exhibition, I 

 must once more advert to microscopic matters con- 

 nected therewith ; not that I have any reason to 

 alter the general opinion expressed in "A Voice 

 from Paris," but to add one or two facts then 

 unnoticed. First of all comes the discovery in the 

 Erench department of a microscope with a moveable 

 stage and a lever, and still more surprising a large 

 microscope (not quite so large as No. 2 size of the 

 London opticians), with two rack-work movements 

 to the stage. I must add that the exhibitors of 

 these phenomena are Mirand & Fils, Rue Galande, 

 52. It is but fair to add that the Parisian opticians 

 are not at fault in shunning stage movements and 

 other improvements, but, as a friend writes me 

 from another corner of the Continent, there is a 

 reason at the bottom. " I read with interest," he 

 says, " your remarks on the microscopes. You are 

 certainly quite right in reflecting on the small 

 dimensions of the continental instruments, and on 

 the very general non-adoption of machine stages and 

 inclining joints, but you might have given (if you 

 could have done so without offence) the true 

 reason— a desire for cheapness. A German or 

 Frenchman likes the luxury of a Ross, Smith and 

 Beck, or Powell and Lealand, as much as any one, 

 and when they affect to despise English appliances 

 on principle, I never believe them." 



I have also seen the working of high powers 

 constructed on Jhe "immersion" principle, at a 

 comparatively cheap rate, and certainly with ex- 

 cellent results. I am disposed to think that we know 

 too little of these objectives in England, and have 

 hitherto regarded them with a trifle too much of 

 prejudice. Fancy, for instance, looking at Pleuro- 

 sigma angulatum, with an apparent diameter of 

 about two inches, without artificial light, or con- 

 denser of any kind, and, more than all, mounted in 

 the ordinary manner, with the common thin glass, 

 not extra thin glass, and being able to take the 

 slide off the stage without moving the objective out 

 of focus. The magnifying power is said to be equal 

 to about Vo-th of an English inch, and the price 300 

 francs. Messrs. Hartnack exhibit objectives of a 

 very superior character to those heretofore manu- 

 factured in France ; and their new pattern objectives, 

 without immersion, are spoken of by all who have 

 tried them in terms of high praise. On this point, 

 however, I am only echoing the opinions of others, 

 although my own impression, from a casual peep or 

 two through one of them, is much in their favour. 



By the way, I am not aware that the spot lens, 

 with the spot on the plane face of an inverted cone 

 of glass, described by M. Nachet, mike Microscopical 

 Journal some years ago, has been used in England. 



It appears to be approved both in France and 

 Germany. 



Before turning my back on the Exhibition, I must 

 mention the splendid mass of crystals of purple 

 Tourmaline exhibited by Colonel Guthrie, in a case 

 directly opposite to Messrs. P. & J. Beck's case. 

 These crystals, about six inches in height, are said 

 to be the finest which have ever been seen. C. 



" AT HOME IN THE WILDERNESS." 



HOME is not shut within narrow limits, is not 

 confined to scenes of pleasure, regal splen- 

 dour, or the dwellings of the great. Wherever 

 warm hearts are to be found together, with content- 

 ment and a hearty desire at all times to do the best 

 that can be done under existing circumstances, 

 health and strength, a will to work, and an 

 unwavering trust in God, who cares even for the 

 sparrows,— there, believe me, exists the primal 

 elements, the magic of home. Thus writes Mr. J. 

 K. Lord at the commencement of a book* which lie 

 has just issued with the above title, and which is 

 intended to teach all wanderers how, if they have 

 but the will, they may make themselves " at home ' 

 in the wilderness." One of the most important 

 requirements for such a task the author possesses, 

 a long experience on the subject of which he writes. 

 Still another scarcely less welcome recommendation 

 will be found in the interesting, aye, fascinating 

 manner in which he inveigles his reader into follow- 

 ing him through what a less efficient hand would 

 have left a dry detail of makeshifts about as 

 interesting as a cookery book or a pharmacopoeia. 

 The object of the book is equally achieved, but in a 

 different manner. We learn " where and when to 

 camp ; how to equip and manage a train of pack- 

 mules ; break, gear, and saddle wild horses ; cross 

 streams, build log shanties, trenail a raft, dig out a 

 canoe, or build it with bark or hide ; manage dog 

 sleighs, and tramp on snow shoes ; what to carry, 

 and what to leave at home;" in fact, all that a 

 wanderer would desire to know, freely interspersed 

 with illustration and anecdote, joined with hearty 

 and wholesome advice, and all so disguised that we 

 fancy we are reading a new book of travels which 

 we cannot leave until it is finished, and which has 

 the merit all books of travel do not possess, of 

 leaving the reader a wiser man. 



Let us collect an incident or two from this little 

 volume in illustration of our remarks. No one 

 would think it a matter of much consequence in 

 buying a horse whether the animal had a long tail 

 or a short one. Oh, yes it is ! says Mr. Lord. " In 



* " At Home in the Wilderness : being full instructions 

 how to get along, and to surmount all difficulties by the 

 way." 3y " The Wanderer." 323 pp., post 8vo. London: 

 Robert Hardwicke. 



