PREFACE. 



to science lias never been consciously sacrificed. A 

 master may be easy and familiar without being loose 



or vague. 



A considerable amount of information will be 

 found incidentally scattered throughout the work on 

 microscopic manipulation, — the selecting, securing, 

 and preparing of the objects for examination ; — an 

 important matter, and one which presents a good 

 deal of practical difficulty to the beginner. Not a 

 little help will be afforded to him, also, on the power 

 to observe and to discriminate what he has under his 

 eye. In almost every instance, the objects selected 

 for illustration are common things, such as any one 

 placed in tolerably favourable circumstances, with 

 access to sea-shore and country-side, may reasonably 

 expect to meet with in a twelvemonth/ s round of 

 research. 



The pictorial illustrations are almost co- extensive 

 with the descriptions ; they are one hundred and 

 thirteen in number; all, with the exception of 

 eighteen,* productions of the author's own pencil, 

 the great majority having been drawn on the wood 

 direct from the microscope, at the same time as the 

 respective descriptions were written. He ventures 

 to hope that they will be found accurate delineations 

 of the objects represented. 



Torquay, February, 1859. 



* The subjects on pp. 43, 48, 98, 100, and 151, have been copied, 

 under the courteous permission of the publisher, from Dr. Carpenter's 

 valuable work, " The Microscope, and its Kevelations." (Churchill, 

 London.) 



