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©liver Mcn5cU Ibolnice & tbe flDicro9cope, 



IN a recent number of the New York Medical Journal (lxl, 

 1895, pp. 236 — 9), Dr. Palmer C. Cole relates some of his 

 microscopical reminiscences, one of which gives a view of 

 the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table as a Microscopist. Dr. Cole 

 says : " It was my good fortune to be a student of the Harvard 

 Medical School when Oliver Wendell Holmes was professor of 

 anatomy and physiology. Professor Holmes was an enthusiast in 

 the use of the microscope, and possessed some of the finest of the 

 Spenser lenses, then the best in the world. He had constructed 

 a stand, principally of wood, stable enough to allow the use of 

 high-power objectives, and so simple that any student with the 

 slightest mechanical ability could make one for himself. My first 

 stand I made on this model at a cost of about fifty cents for 

 material. 



The coarse adjustment was obtained by means of a pin in the 

 tube carrying objective and eyepiece, which was pushed against a 

 wedge-shaped piece of brass. The fine adjustment was obtained 

 by revolving the pin against the wedge. Over the tube was 

 slipped a cardboard disc, some six to eight inches in diameter, 

 covered with black velvet, allowing both eyes to be kept open 

 during observation. The tube was also lined with black velvet. 

 The tube-support revolved on a pivot, allowing inclination, though 

 we were taught to use it with direct light. In a recent letter to 

 me, Oliver Wendell Holmes refers to this stand as ' a rough 

 wooden contrivance that answered its purpose.' Later, Holmes's 

 lecture-room microscope, for use in his own class, became very 

 popular, and is still extensively used. 



Notwithstanding his engagements with others in founding the 

 Atlantic Monthly ^ his medical lectures five days a week, an occa- 

 sional public lecture, and monthly instalments in the Atlantic of 

 that brilliant series of essays. The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table^ 

 he found time at his own house in Montgomery Place, to give 

 weekly instruction to half-a-dozen chosen students in the use of 

 the microscope. In 1856 and 1857, I was fortunate enough to 

 be one of the chosen half-dozen. We were taught the use of the 



