MICROSCOPIC ADMEASUREMENT. O 



description, and with wliat facility a foreign savant catches up an 

 English work written in Latin. It is equally as essential in micros- 

 copy, if we Avould not be behind all other nations, to adopt an 

 admeasurement which shall be as universal as Latin, if we desire 

 that the honour of Old England shall be maintained in the arts of 

 peace in the eminence she has acquired in the art of war. Or else, 

 when the time comes for the roar of the English cannon to be no 

 more heard on the ocean, and the gleam of the English bayonet be 

 no more seen on the hills, the name of England will fade away 

 and be forgotten, or only remembered for her gunpowder and steeL 



The machinery and labour which it would cost to introduce our 

 pet inch as the standard all over the world, would be enormous. 

 The power to introduce the European standard into all countries in 

 which English is spoken, lies in the hands of a few : it rests with 

 the microscopists of London. If they adopt it, those in the 

 provinces will follow the example, and, in self-defence, our colonists 

 will do the same ; then if America does not think fit to fall in, she 

 will become as isolated in microscopy as if she spoke and wrote in 

 an unknown toLgue. 



If we reduce the question to the smallest number of words, we 

 shall find it standing in something lilce the following fomi : — It 

 is advisable that one and the same method of measuring and re- 

 cording the dimensions of microscopic objects shall be adopted 

 universally in all countries where microscopical observations are 

 published. 



It would be impracticable to attempt to introduce an entirely 

 new standard, without the earnest co-operation of microscopists 

 throughoiit Europe. 



The adoption of any standard universally, independent of the 

 value of its unit — if capable of accomplishment — would be a real 

 benefit to microscopical science. 



The French method is adopted by three-fifths of those interested, 

 and is, therefore, the one which might be rendered universal with 

 the least opposition. 



The adoption of the millemetre as the standard is, therefore, in- 

 cumbent upon British microscopists, if they would advance, and 

 not obstruct, the cause which they are presumed to have at heart. 



A few words on the mode by which I conceive it possible for 

 this climax to be attained, and I have dune. 



The first step, and the one without which no others can be 



