50 PREPARATION AND MOUNTING 
usually affixed to one end of the slide, on which is written 
what is required. These labels may be bought of different 
colours and designs; but the most simple are quite as good, 
and very readily procured. Take a sheet of thin writing 
paper and brush over one side a strong solution of gum, 
with the addition of a few drops of glycerine, or grains of 
moist sugar, as above recommended; allow this to dry, and 
then with a common gun-punch stamp out the circles, 
which may be affixed to the slides by simply damping the 
gummed surface, taking care to write the required name, 
&c., upon it before damping it, or else allowing it to become 
perfectly dry first. 
There is one difficulty which a beginner often experiences 
in sorting and mounting certain specimens under the micro- 
scope, viz., the inversion of the objects; and it is often 
stated to be almost impossible to work without an erector. 
But this difficulty soon vanishes, the young student becoming 
used to working what at first seems in contradiction to his 
sight. 
Let it be understood, that in giving the description of 
those articles which are usually esteemed necessary in the 
various parts of microscopic manipulation, I do not mean to 
say that without many of these no work of any value can 
be done. ‘There are, as all will allow, certain forms of 
apparatus which aid the operator considerably; but the 
cost may be too great for him. A little thought, however, 
will frequently overcome this difficulty, by enabling him to 
make, or get made, for himself, at a comparatively light 
expense, something which will accomplish all he desires, 
As an example of this, a friend of mine made what he terms 
his “ universal stand,” to carry various condensers, &c. &., 
in the following way :—Take a steel or brass wire, three- 
sixteenths or one-quarter inch thick and six or eight inches 
long; “tap” into a solid, or make rough and fasten with 
melted lead into a hollow, ball. (The foot of a cabinet 
or work-box answers the purpose very well.) In the centre 
of a round piece of tough board, three inches in diameter, 
