OBJECT-CABINETS. 235 



■without cells, paper coverings to the slides had better he dispensed 

 with ; and besides the name of the object, it is desirable to inscribe 

 on the glass that of the fluid in which it is mounted. For the 

 preservation of objects, the pasteboard boxes now made at a very 

 reasonable cost, with wooden racks, to contain 6, 12, or 24 slides, 

 will be found extremely useful. In these, however, the slides 

 must always stand upon their edges ; a position which, besides 

 interfering with that ready view of them which is required for 

 the immediate selection of any particular specimen, is unfavour- 

 able to the continued soundness of preparations mounted in fluid. 

 Although such boxes are most useful, indeed almost indispensable, 

 to the Microscopist, for holding slides which he desires (for what- 

 ever purpose) to keep for awhile constantly at hand, yet his 

 regularly-classified series is much more conveniently stored in a 

 Cabinet containing numerous very shallow drawers, in which they 

 lie flat and exposed to view. Such cabinets are now prepared for 

 sale under the direction of our principal Opticians, with all the 

 improvements that experience has suggested. In order to anta- 

 gonize the disposition of the slides to slip one over another in the 

 opening or shutting of the drawers, it has been found preferable 

 to arrange them in such a manner that they lie with their ends 

 (instead of their long sides) towards the front of the drawer, and 

 to interpose a cross-strip of wood, lying parallel to the front of 

 the drawer, between each row. It is very convenient, moreover, 

 for the front of the drawer to be furnished with a little tablet of 

 porcelain, on which the name of the group of objects it may 

 contain can be written in pencil, so as to be readily rubbed out ; 

 or a small frame may be attached to it, into which a slip of card 

 may be inserted for the same purpose.* 



Section 3. Collection of Objects. 



175. A large proportion of the objects with which the Micro- 

 scopist is concerned, are derived from the minute parts of those 

 larger organisms, whether Vegetable or Animal, the collection of 

 which does not require any other methods than those pursued by 

 the ordinary Naturalist. With regard to such, therefore, no 

 special directions are required. But there are several most inte- 

 resting and important groups both of Plants and Animals, which 

 are themselves, on account of their minuteness, essentially micro- 

 scopic ; and the collection of these requires peculiar methods and 

 implements, which are, however, very simple — the chief element 

 of success lying in the knowledge where to look and what to 



* A very convenient and portable Object-Cabinet, in the form of a 

 book, has been devised by Mr. James Smith (" Quart. Microsc. Journ.," 

 Vol. viii., I860, p. 202), and is manufactured by Messrs. Smith and Beck ; 

 and another still more convenient form^ devised by Mr. Piper (" Trans, of 

 Microsc. Society," Vol. xv., p. 16), is now sold by most Opticians under 

 the name of the "Portable Horizontal Slide Cabinet." 



