2o6 



HARD WICKE'S S CIENCE- G OS SIP. 



A CHEAP MICROSCOPICAL CABINET 

 FOR SLIDES. 



AS I dare say some of the readers of Science- 

 Gossip have felt the want of some more con- 

 venient mode of bestowing their microscopic slides 

 than the old-fashioned racks, and have at the same 

 time been unwilling to give the prices demanded by 

 dealers for cabinets, I am anxious to give the results 

 of an effort I made to supply myself with a set of five 

 books, to hold 150 slides each. 



Fig 166. Microscopical Cabinet for Slides. 



I procured at a stationer's twenty-five Welsh slates, 

 such as are used in schools, carefully picking those 

 having well-formed, clean frames, the size being 6\ 

 by 10 inches on the inside. I removed the slate from 

 one of them, which is easily done by pressing out the 

 pegs at two of the corners, and ordered twenty-five 

 pieces of stiff milled-board, about as thick as that 

 used for the backs of octavo books, to be cut to the 

 exact size of the slate I removed, and then to have 

 highly glazed white paper pasted over them. 



When they were finished, I procured some of the 

 best silk elastic, \ inch broad, and had it stitched on 

 both sides of the boards, three bands on each sewn 

 through and through at such intervals as to take five 

 slides on each row, holes having been previously bored 

 in the cardboard thus ;::::: the spaces 

 being about an inch and a quarter wide. 



In the meantime I took a sharp knife and a bit of 

 sand-paper, and trimmed all projecting corners off 

 my slate-frames, and then, without removing the 

 slates, sent them to a French polisher to stain and 



polish them like mahogany. When I got them back 

 I removed the slates and substituted for them the 

 pieces of cardboard I had prepared, carefully replacing 

 the pegs exactly as I took them out. The next step 

 was to take them to a bookbinder, with orders to 

 bind five frames in each volume, securing them by 

 tacking a piece of stout canvas to the edges of each 

 frame in the volume. The results have surpassed my 

 expectations, for the grain of the wood is so like 

 mahogany that only careful observation could detect 

 the difference ; and the volumes filled with slides, 

 fifteen on each "page," if I may use the term, look 

 remarkably well, and, what is better, are most con- 

 venient. 



Now as to cost : — 



£ 



d. 



25 slates, 6J x 10 in., at 4/6 per 



dozen ... 

 25 milled boards, cut to size and 



covered with white paper 

 36 yards of clastic 

 French polishing slate-frames ... 

 Binding five volumes ... 



I have not included the sewing on of the elastic, 

 as most microscopists have lady friends \\\\o would 

 do them. 



The accompanykig sketch gives a better idea than 

 any amount of description. 



I need hardly add that the cost of many of the 

 items could be reduced. For instance, Berlin black 

 might be applied to the frames instead of French 

 polishing ; and the cost of cutting and covering the 

 boards might l^e dispensed with by any one taking the 

 trouble to do it himself. 



T. H. MOORHEAD. 



MICROSCOPY. 



The "Journal of the Quekett Micro- 

 scopical Club," Part 34. — The i^art just pxiblished 

 is, perhaps, of more than usual interest, and we ap- 

 pend a list of the papers read before the Society, 

 several of them containing important practical infor- 

 mation : — "On a New Form of Section-cutting 

 Machine," by H. F. Hailes. I plate. — "On Black 

 Moulds," by M. C. Cooke, M.A., LL.D., &c. 

 4 coloured plates. — " On the Absence of Stomata in 

 certain Ferns," by W. H. Gilbert.— "A Contribution 

 to the Life History oi Botrylloides,'' by T. C. White, 

 M.R.C.S., &c.— " Professor Giuseppe de Notaris."— 

 " On Staining Vegetable Tissues," by W. H. Gil- 

 bert. — "Proceedings." Mr. Hailes' machine, which 

 we have seen, seems to meet the requirements of 

 those who are anxious to make their own sections 

 (and which every one should do ^\•ho really wishes to 

 know something of the minute animal or vegetable 



