THE SCIENCE OF MICROSCOPY 



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On the other hand the now almost universal employment of the 

 microscope in our daily routine of physical research^ causes us to 

 look upon it rather as a handy servant of all work, than as itself 

 the last and ripest product of an eminently exact science ; an 

 instrument of precision which responds only to the touch of one 

 who is expert in guiding, as well as in recognising the truth and 

 accuracy of its performance. Moreover, in using this servant of 

 all work, our constant thought is of the result we are looking for, 

 i.e., some point of interest bearing on the particular subject for 

 which a microscopic examination was instituted. And the mind 

 thus pre -occupied readily overleaps the preliminary and alm.ost 

 automatic exercise of mental and mechanical vision. The correct- 

 ness of our observations, and the confidence with which we 

 interpret them, pass unquestioned in the presence of the more 

 interesting problems upon which attention is fixed. And as we 

 are apt to forget that microscopy is not less a science because its 

 results are directly utilised to the advantage of other sciences, so 

 our practice, scantily honored by any recognition of its physical 

 and physiological foundations, tends to sink to the level of 

 empiricism, instead of being maintained in its position of equality 

 with the most subtle science of observation that could be named. 

 Yet if there be anywhere a real ''science of observation," none 

 merits this distinctive title more absolutely and unreservedly than 

 the science of microscopy. For while, in common with all other 



finally, over the material constitution of inorganic matter and the physical 

 phenomena connected therewith, a fresh nomenclature gradually arose with 

 the reconstruction of the old divisions of natural science, and the creation 

 of younger branches by means of the microscope. Thus microscopic 

 anatomy gradually merged its old title in the more specific ones of histology 

 morphology, &c. Meanwhile, the instrument which gave rise to this out« 

 spread of scientific observation underwent revolutions of its own, which 

 brought its functions and achievements into closer and more direct relation 

 with the study of optical phenomena. And it is partly in virtue of this 

 direct bearing of optical law on the "facts" revealed by the microscope, that 

 microscopy now claims to be considered a special science. 



