THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



^xxcluit pkrosrapual €lnh. 



Ox Universal Microscopic Admeasurement. By M. C. Cooke. 

 (Read March 23rd, 1866.) 



The student who confines himself to English books, and shuts 

 his eyes and ears to everything German, French, or Italian, will 

 hardly have experienced any trouble or annoyance from the fact 

 that, in describing a microscopical object, our continental neigh- 

 bours univei'sally employ a measurement which is as strange to us 

 as their language, and expressed in terms of the value of which 

 we have no experience. As now used, the dimensions of objects 

 require translation as much as the language in which the descrip- 

 tion is written, with the disadvantage that the translation is not 

 so readily made, or the power of translating so easily applied. 

 We may suppose that the description of a minute object, be it 

 diatom, insect, or mould, is written, as it always should be, in 

 Latin ; the measurements, however, though expressed sometimes in 

 Latin, are more commonly read from a standard which is to us 

 practically unknown. 



It will be better, in the first instance, to look over the map of the 

 world, and see in what civilised portions microscopic study is pur- 

 sued, and what is the unit of measurement adopted, before we 

 attempt any project to remedy the evil. We may fairly confine 

 ourselves to Europe and America, without fear lest Asia and 

 Africa should protest against being left out, because all the students 

 in those regiors will be " exports" from Europe or America. 

 Australia is not much troubled with microscopical students. Her 

 sons have not yet found time to stand for hours at one end of a 

 microscope. 



