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RECOLLECTIONS OF OUR MEETINGS. 



Microscopic Photography. — The subject of microscopic de- 

 lineation is one which has more or less occupied the attention of 

 every one who has used the microscope for observation. We have 

 often envied the facility with which some observers can delineate so 

 vividly what they see, and when reading a communication on any 

 branch of our science, we instinctively turn to the illustrations (if 

 there be any) as often affording a readier means of arriving at what 

 the author of the papers desires to convey than his written words. 

 And especially the medical student, in his investigation of animal 

 structure in health and disease, often desires to preserve for future 

 study and comparison something which shall be a true and faithful 

 representation of that which he sees upon the stage of his micros- 

 cope. If clever in the use of the pencil he straightway, with some 

 expenditure of time and trouble, produces a sketch of more or less 

 accuracy, and preserves it, either for reference or publication. But 

 still, clever though the artist may be, careful though may be the 

 observation, and apparently truthful the outline and details, there 

 is still some doubt whether the draughtsman has not drawn more or 

 less than exists in fact ; and it is by no means improbable that 

 subsequent observers may fail even to recognise the likeness to the 

 particular object or structure of which it professes to be a representa- 

 tion. Many engravings in our published works are difficult to 

 recognise, and it is a matter of interest in microscopic circles to 

 seek for specimens which shall be similar in appearance to a certain 

 wood-cut or engraving in some particular work. But if the object 

 could be made to delineate itself, if the various details could be 

 made to impress themselves permanently on some medium which 

 could be examined at leisure and preserved indefinitely, a great deal 

 of uncertainty and erroneous generalisation might be avoided. 



Every one who has dabbled in photography, and at the same time 

 possesses a microscope, must at some time or other have been im- 

 pressed with the extreme sxiitability of the process for producing 

 precisely what was wanted in the delineation of minute objects. 

 Pictures can be produced by this process so extremely minute in 



