THE SCIENCE OF MICROSCOPY. 307 



amusement which he finds in toy objects, must prepare himself by 

 adequate study of the conditions under which he has to observe 

 and interpret what is put before him. 



The proposition that microscopy should be regarded as a special 

 branch of science finds, however, little favor with the general body 

 of microscopists. Nor is there, amongst those who do accept it, 

 much unanimity of opinion respecting its precise subjects and 

 objects, or any particular recognition of the authority it should 

 possess as a depository of established principles, to which appeal 

 might be made in cases of doubtful observation or disputed 

 interpretation. There seems indeed no inherent necessity, in the 

 nature of the researches prosecuted by the help of the microscope, 

 that any particular subjects in anatomy of organic, or analysis of 

 inorganic matter, should be separated from the respective divisions 

 of natural science under which they have been heretofore studied, 

 in order merely to create a special domain of microscopic science. 

 For the connection between the microscope and the microscopic 

 details of any one subject is just the same in kind for all other 

 microscopic studies, i.e., a purely optical one resting upon the 

 power of the instrument to represent, by a magnified image, 

 material forms which are not otherwise visible. The facts thus 

 learned belong to the whole domain of science : they are the 

 building materials from which the several parts of one great temple 

 are constructed. But each part or division may be integral in a 

 true sense, that is, as a self-contained science within its own limits, 

 although but a fraction of the great whole. And it is not only a 

 necessity of the limitation of human life and power, but an 

 indispensable device for furtherance of the whole construction, that 

 the principle of division of labour should prevail, and that separate 

 branches of science should be separately pursued whenever sufficient 

 reason appears for such disjunction. 



Now in studying many objects taken from the recognised 

 branches — anatomy, botany, histology, petrology, and so forth, 

 certain appearances have been observed which, being phenomena 



