l888.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 109 



Unfortunately, this sort of narrow opposition to the inevitable 

 elaboration of scientific implements is not a thing which de- 

 creases with the general increase of knowledge. It has accom- 

 panied every step in the development of the microscope and its 

 accessories, and I suppose it will go right on in the future ; for 

 I can hardly imagine a time when some specialist will not think 

 it praiseworthy to contemn " the latest improvements," and take 

 personal pride in pointing to the results of his own labors ac- 

 complished by the use of only the simplest mechanical aids. 



Within a short time we have heard learned sermons preached 

 upon the superiority of specimens prepared without the employ- 

 ment of circular cover-glasses and, of course, without the assist- 

 ance of the turn-table. It was admitted that they were not very 

 attractive to the naked eye ; but then there was " no nonsense " 

 about them, — they were intended ''''for use!" So, too, we have 

 witnessed a later contest over the microtome. What earnest 

 homilies we have listened to upon the superlative excellence of 

 the German method of free-hand section-cutting, and how posi- 

 tively we have been assured that all mechanical section-cutters 

 were only delusions and snares ! I have to admit that some of 

 the later developments of this accessory are rather formidable- 

 looking engines which seem capable almost of cutting timber for 

 commercial purposes ; but I notice that the gentleman who de- 

 nounces all American microscopes, as being too complicated, is 

 himself the inventor of one of these elaborate slicing machines. 

 Yet the automatic microtome plainly has come to stay. So have 

 the mechanical stage, the swinging sub-stage, and many other 

 contrivances over which we have seen battle waged. 



Shall we ever forget the terrific struggle with which the 

 homogeneous-immersion lens was obliged to win its way to a 

 footing in the microscopical world ? Men of no small impor- 

 tance blocked the road, not with drawn swords, but with drawn 

 diagrams which most certainly proved, if they proved anything, 

 that an angle of more than i8o° was an optical impossibility and 

 that, no matter what people might think they saw, they at all 

 events could not see round a corner ; for, as old John Trum- 

 bull wrote, 



" Optics sharp it needs, I ween, 

 To see what is not to be seen." 



