Aug. 1, 1S69.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCI ENCE-GO SSIP. 



177 



road which led from the quarry, and as I looked 

 down upon the scene I had just quitted, I was 

 cheerfully hailed by ruy late "congregation" with 

 these words, " Good afternoon, sir ! " while hands 

 were simultaneously raised to their foreheads or to 

 lift up from those sweating brows the rough-worn 

 caps which had covered them. Turning then, home- 

 ward-bound, into the nearest lane, I could not help 

 pleasantly pondering, on my solitary way, upon what 

 that morning had brought forward as tending to my 

 own, as well as, I hoped, to the intellectual gratifi- 

 cation of others. 



MICROSCOPICAL RESEARCH. 



IT is a singular fact, but it is not the less a true 

 one, that there is no country in the world where 

 excellent microscopes can be had cheaper, and yet 

 where there is less good work done with them than 

 England. A great deal may be said, doubtless, on 

 the high value of the immersion lenses now so much 

 employed on the Continent, and manufactured on 

 so large a scale by Hartnack of Paris, and Merz 

 of Munich. But if the immersion system prove, as 

 it is likely to do, one calculated to meet the wants 

 of the investigator, we shall be able to surpass the 

 French and Germans, even in the manufacture of 

 this form of objective. And, in so far as the ordi- 

 nary dry lenses are concerned, we do not hesitate 

 to affirm that there are no manufacturers, whether 

 Continental or American, who can stand in compe- 

 tition in work of this kind with our English makers. 

 There are, we know, a few who go into ecstasies over 

 Nachet's " stands," but we have seen these instru- 

 ments, and can honestly say that they have nothing 

 in their favour but their great weight; and, for 

 durability, solidity, and beauty of workmanship, we 

 should not think for a moment of comparing them 

 with the "stands" of our best London makers. 

 Differences of opinion may exist on this as on all 

 other points, and we shall be very glad to hear the 

 views of our numerous correspondents on the sub- 

 ject. But we believe that the great bulk of those 

 who have experience in the microscopes of different 

 countries, will admit the force of the proposition 

 with which we started, that English microscopes, 

 taken tout entier, surpass those of every other 

 nation. 



How is it, then, we ask, that with such excellent 

 appliances so little good work is done annually in 

 England ? Is it that the number of those who pos- 

 sess microscopes is so limited, or is it that the in- 

 strument is used "in a groove" by persons who have 

 never been taught the wide field for exploration which 

 lies before them, and who are ignorant of the 

 methods of microscopical inquiry? The former 

 question can, we think, at once be answered in the 

 negative. A visit to any of the soirees of the Royal 

 Microscopical Society or Quekett Club, or to the 



houses of our first-class opticians, will demonstrate 

 in a very few moments the fact that the microscope 

 is an instrument having an extensive sale, and 

 that it is largely distributed among all classes, and 

 is much used by those who purchase it. It cannot 

 be then that the microscope is not in the hands of 

 persons who are interested in testing its capacities, 

 and therefore we are bound to fall back on the 

 alternative explanation that the absence of im- 

 portant research — or rather of the due proportion of 

 scientific investigation — is owing to the circumstance 

 that the thousands of earnest and industrious people 

 who possess good microscopes have never yet been 

 taught in what direction to turn their labours. 



Go where we will among microscopists, we un- 

 happily find that the rage for perpetually poring 

 over diatomacese is nearly universally epidemic. 

 Men with the best instruments and most perfect 

 and elaborate appliances for scientific inquiry, spend 

 their hours in, we won't say fruitless, but certainly 

 in unprofitable exertions to bring out the markings 

 in an angulatum or a rJwmboides, just as if the only 

 thing to be done with so useful a means of research 

 as the microscope undoubtedly is, was to discover 

 how many lines on a minute vegetable structure 

 could be brought into view. There was ]a time 

 when such inquiries were useful, as they stimulated 

 the manufacturer to bring his lenses up to that 

 degree of optical perfection which entirely, or 

 nearly so, avoided aberrations. But assuredly the 

 present optical perfection of the microscope, so 

 close as it is to theoretical possibilities, is all-suffi- 

 cient for biologists, and it is melancholy to waste 

 time in attempts of the kind, while so much impor- 

 tant biological research awaits the ardent student. 

 And, indeed, it is to be observed, en parenthese, 

 that the very optical imperfections which some 

 diatonaniacs would seek to remove, are those most 

 valuable in anatomical studies. Definition is an 

 excellent quality, but it is not paramount ; and for 

 the worker the mean between the highest " defini- 

 tion "and the greatest "penetration" is what is 

 required. 



We make these remarks in the hope that some of 

 our older workers with the microscope may be in- 

 duced to come forward and give advice to the large 

 field of amateur labourers who are now doing just 

 that kind of useless work which is known to seamen 

 as " scraping the cable." "What we should like to 

 see would be the delivery of a course of lectures 

 " on the work to be done with the microscope," by 

 some master in biological inquiry. If some one like 

 Professor Huxley would come forward and give " a 

 working man's lecture " on the multitude of impor- 

 tant points to be made out by means of the micro- 

 scope, we believe he would do more than has been 

 achieved for years to advance histological research 

 in these countries. The man who has a microscope 

 wants to be led out of the manufacturer's groove of 



