VI. PREFACE. 



knowledge, and to supply, from actual experience, information and 

 directions that shall render the Microscope instructive as well as 

 amusing. 



The only original works similar to the present are Baker's ^^Em- 

 ployment for the Microscope," which work modem improvements 

 have rendered obsolete, and Pritchard's " Microscopic Cabinet,''^ 

 and his " List of 2000 Objects, with' Remarks ;" both of which 

 are out of print. From the two latter works copious extracts 

 have been made ; and indeed wherever the source of a passage 

 marked with inverted commas is not given, the reader may 

 consider it as taken from one or other of them. 



The original matter, including the directions for preparing 

 and mounting microscopic objects, is the result of the writer's 

 own experience, and for it he does not stand indebted to any 

 other source, private or public. He believes that it will be found 

 of practical value to all who desire to use the Microscope 

 efficiently. 



The instructions for preparing some of the more difficult 

 subjects — as thin sections of fossils, &c. — may not in some cases be 

 needed, as a single specimen is sufficient, and can be obtained from 

 a respectable optician at a trifling cost — much less, indeed, than 

 the price of the tools which would be required to prepare it. This 

 latter circumstance, added to the facility with which the objects 

 in question can, for a few pence, be conveyed by post to the most 

 distant parts of the British Islands, is well deserving of the notice 

 of those who wish to make a good use of their Microscopes. The 



