Journal 



OF THE 



NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



Vol. L JUNE, 1885. No. 6. 



THE SEALED FLASKS OF CRYSTAL. 



BY ALEXIS A. JULIEN, PH. D. 

 {Read May 15M, 1885.) 



To the loot of Pekin the art-lovers of the world owed their 

 first thoroug' wledge of the curious images, balls, vases and 



flasks carved, OL.en grotesquely, in the very hardest materials — 

 jade, agate, and rock-cry?*" ' —by the skilful artificers of China 

 and Japan. Such an ob' .ed its interest, not only to the 



beauty of its form, but also o the lustre, transparency; and im- 

 perishability of its material, and, often, to its priceless value, 

 as representing an entire lifetime of patient labor. 



But '", ^ re has gone even farther, having produced, in the 

 so-call . d-cavities of the harder minerals, flasks and vases 

 still nil. . minutely and deftly worked and of vastly greater 

 antiquity, filled, besides, with strange liquids and gases, and then 

 hermetically sealed forever with the very material of the flask 

 itself. A kind 01 romantic and even artistic interest has been 

 manifested by mineralogists and microscopists toward these 

 delicate inclosures, and much careful study has been bestowed 

 upon them. It is not the purpose of this paper, however, to 

 review the literature of the subject, nor even to describe these 

 fluid-cavities in detail, but simply to present such suggestions in 

 regard to the collection and preparation of specimens, the choice 

 of objectives and accessory apparatus, and the common 

 method of examination, as may smooth the path for the study of 

 these cavities by the general microscopist who may not have 

 made microscopic lithology a specialty. 



Contrary to the general belief, the material which contains 

 these cavities is not rare. All the harder crystallized minerals 

 have them, and the conditions for their easy examination are 

 presented everywhere in our common gems,' — the diamond, ruby, 



'Isaac Lea : Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1869, Feb. and May ; and 1876, May.— H. 

 C. Sorby and P. J. Butler : Proc. Roy. Soc, London, 1869, XVII., p. 291. 



