90 



Journal of Applied Microscopy. 



be cured in childhood are allowed to 

 become deeply inwrought. Their eradi- 

 cation is then tedious and at best but 

 incomplete, while the task is trying to 

 the patience and to the temper of both 

 teacher and pupil. The latter, in blank 

 unconsciousness of his defects, thinks 

 that he is doing his best, and this is 

 probably true. The former is bitterly 

 lamenting the necessity of expending 

 time and effort in doing what should 

 have been done earlier, at school, or, 

 better still, at home. That a scalpel is 

 not the proper tool for sharpening a 

 pencil; that objectives must on no 

 account be dropped; that stains and 

 other reagents should not be poured out 

 like water; that section razors must be 

 carefully handled and dried; that mate- 

 rial must be kept in good condition; that 

 stoppers should not be laid down on the 

 table; that pages should never be turned 

 over and soiled by the wetted fingers; 

 that the hand should contain eight 

 fingers and two thumbs rather than 

 ten thumbs,— all these facts are so 

 elementary, that common sense and 

 early training should have impressed 

 them on the mind before the stu- 

 dent reaches the actual laboratory. 

 Yet every teacher in this depart- 

 ment finds numbers of young men and 

 some, though fewer, young women to 

 whom it is all new and strange, and to 

 whom it must be taught at the outset 

 of their laboratory studies. Let us hope 

 that the extension of the kindergarten 

 and the manual training school will 

 gradually eliminate these troublesome 

 factors from the educational problems. 



Thirdly, a student with the microscope 

 cannot fail to become deeply convinced 

 of the importance of little things, of the 

 "next to nothing." The minuteness of 

 the material, the magnification of the 

 faults, the need of exact adjustment, 

 the absolute necessity for delicacy of 

 touch to avoid failure, are very power- 

 ful agents in this process of education. 

 The ten thumbs of the average beginner, 

 which are everywhere but in the right 

 place, and which are so cleverly mis- 

 chievous in overthrowing bottles, wast- 

 ing material, losing time, and trying 

 temper, are gradually transformed into 

 the eight fingers and two thumbs of the 

 careful and experienced manipulator 

 which are always just where they should 

 be. This again is in itself an education 

 of the highest value in life. It amounts 

 to scarcely less than the development 

 of a new sense. It is the difference 

 between the hands of the conjurer and 

 the clown. 



Without unduly lengthening this note, 

 I cannot touch on some other indirect 

 advantages of this study, but must dwell 

 for a moment on one more and perhaps 



the most important of all. The young 

 microscopist is ever ready to jump to 

 conclusions. He sees because he thinks 

 he sees. He is far more confident than 

 his teacher. He knows not so well the 

 pitfalls and traps that nature lays in his 

 way. The art of interpreting what the 

 microscope reveals is of the foremost 

 importance. Not the obvious, but the 

 recondite, is usually the true. To ascer- 

 tain exactly what the slide really exhib- 

 its by repeated and tedious experiment 

 and careful drawing, until every source 

 of error has been eliminated and every 

 objection anticipated, is a task usually 

 beyond the conception of the beginner. 

 And when by repeated failures and 

 deception he arrives slowly at the com- 

 prehension of the fact that not what he 

 thinks, but what is, is the object of his 

 labor, and that no pains or time must 

 be spared to insure the latter and escape 

 the former, he has gained for himself 

 an education for the work of life, sur- 

 passing any other that his studies can 

 impart, for he has gained the deep and 

 lasting conviction that truth is the 

 object of all scientific research, and 

 should be the object of all research, and 

 he has further gained the almost equally 

 valuable po%Ver of suspending his judg- 

 ment until all the data are in hand, a 

 condition of mind most hateful to the 

 mass of mankind, who vastly prefer the 

 positive dogma of ignorance to the 

 guarded opinion of knowledge and 

 experience. 



The upshot of the foregoing somewhat 

 disconnected remarks is therefore, that 

 microscopical study has a more general 

 bearing on education than is usually 

 supposed, and that students who do not 

 expect to use the instrument in later 

 life would yet derive very great profit 

 from going through a course of micro- 

 scopical work for the sake of the indirect 

 benefits which tlaey would derive from 

 it, benefits which cannot altogether be 

 obtained in any other line. 



Mesilla, N. M., Jan. 21, 1898. 



The Journal has received numerous 

 United States and Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station reports, books, and papers 

 from authors, which will be formally 

 acknowledged in due course. 



These books and papers are placed in 

 the library of the Journal of Applied 

 Microscopy, and we would add in this 

 connection, that any books or papers 

 bearing on microscopical subjects will 

 be gladly acknowledged for the library, 

 and new books and papers will be care- 

 fully reviewed by competent authorities 

 in the subjects treated on. 



