Journal of Applied Microscopy. 



57 



Journal of 

 Applied Microscopy. 



Issued Monthly from the Publication Department 



of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Co., 



Rochester, N. Y. 



L. B. ELLIOTT, Editor. 



Address all communications to 

 Publication Department, 



BAUSCH & LOMB OPTICAL CO., 



Rochester, N. Y. 



ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR. 

 To Foreign Countries - - $1.25 Per Year. 



Entered at the Post-office, Rochester, N. T., as second-class matter. 



MARCH, 1898. 



EDITORIAL. 



Subscription remittances are acknowl- 

 edged simply by sending the Journal. 

 We shall consider it a favor if you will 

 at once report the non-receipt of any 

 number. 



* * * 



Sample copies of the January and Feb- 

 ruary numbers of the Journal of Applied 

 Microscopy have been sent to those 

 engaged in microscopical work for the 

 purpose of enabling them to judge of its 

 value. "We take this occasion to express 

 our thanks to the large numbers who 

 have favored us with their 'remittances, 

 and trust that all others who desire the 

 Journal continued will advise us at once, 

 as no more free samples will be supplied. 

 The material already at hand for the 

 April, May, and June numbers is in no 

 way inferior to and in many respects 

 more interesting than that which has 

 already appeared. 



* * * 



There are so many physicians to whom 

 a practical microscopical laboratory 

 appears to be of secondary importance 

 that we cannot refrain from repeating a 

 portion of the excellent editorial on the 

 subject of the " Physician's Private 

 Diagnostic Laboratory" which recently 

 appeared in the " Journal of the Ameri- 

 can Medical Association." 



The exactions of modern clinical diag- 

 nosis, through the application of patho- 

 logic and bacteriologic methods, have 

 imposed new obligations upon medical 

 practitioners. A few test-tubes and a 

 spirit lamp no longer constitute a satis- 

 factory laboratory outfit for a physi- 

 cian's office. To be abreast of the times, 

 and to give his patients the benefit of the 



progress in medical science, a physician 

 who conscientiously feels his obligations 

 must extend his laboratory practice far 

 beyond the old confines of a search for 

 albumin and sugar in the urine. The old 

 microscope which has so long stood 

 under the protection of a bell-glass, or 

 has accumulated the dust of years in the 

 closet, must be resurrected, not alone to 

 search for tube-casts and spermatozoa, 

 but to take a place beside the thermome- 

 ter and the stethoscope in daily practice. 



The microscope, the test-tubes, and the 

 spirit lamp by no means constitute the 

 requisite outfit. A number of additional 

 pieces of laboratory equipment are 

 required, until the office laboratory of 

 the physician becomes a miniature 

 chemic, bacteriologic, and pathologic 

 laboratory. A small microtome and the 

 centrifuge with its haematokrit are desir- 

 able; a simple sterilizer, incubator, and 

 paraffin bath are absolutely necessary; 

 along with such glassware as test-tubes, 

 flasks, slides and coverglasses, and a 

 number of reagents. It fortunately 

 happens that, aside from the microscope 

 and microtome, the material necessary to 

 equip a small working laboratory for 

 purposes of clinical diagnosis is com- 

 paratively inexpensive, providing mate- 

 rial of a simple character be chosen. 



No doubt there are hundreds of physi- 

 cians over the land who appreciate more 

 or less keenly the desirability of employ- 

 ing laboratory methods in medical and 

 surgical diagnosis, and to these indi- 

 viduals the item of expense in laboratory 

 equipment would offer no obstacle. More 

 serious objections are raised, and notably 

 the one which confesses total ignorance 

 of the methods of modern laboratory 

 work. Here is indeed a serious stumb- 

 ling block — one, unfortunately, which 

 lies in the way not only of the older 

 practitioner, but also before the majority 

 of recent graduates in medicine, who 

 imagined while they were in college, that 

 they were receiving " practical labora- 

 tory instruction," but who find them- 

 selves utterly helpless when the first 

 tumor or the first case of diphtheria pre- 

 sents itself for diagnosis. The fault lies 

 in an ignorance of laboratory technique 

 which makes the would-be laboratory 

 worker quite as helpless as one who 

 aspired to do modern surgery while 

 ignorant of the technique of hemostasis 

 or of aseptic procedure. 



How can this essential knowledge of 

 laboratory manipulation be obtained? 

 Obviously, by practice alone. This 

 means that a reform should be inaugu- 

 rated in a large portion of the laboratory 

 instruction, as given to-day by medical 

 schools, so that each student will be pro- 

 vided with a complete simple laboratory 

 outfit, and enabled to pursue all the 



