OssERVATIONS and Experiments with the Microscorn on the 
Errects of Prusstc Acip on the Animat Economy. By 
Tomas SHEARMAN Ratpu, M.R.C.S. Eng., &c.* 
Every year as it passes away leaves behind it additional 
testimony to the fact that the microscope is advancing to 
occupy a position of importance in medical practice equal to 
that which the stethoscope has attained; and I feel satisfied 
that ere many more years have passed the regular employ- 
ment of the microscope, as a means of diagnosis, will be 
maintained and duly acknowledged. The slow but steady 
progress which the use of this instrument has made in the 
hands of the medical profession should tend to point rather 
to the important nature of the results to which it is destined 
to lead us, than to accepting the doubts of some who 
occasionally assail its employment, and are unable or un- 
willing to avail themselves of its powers. 
2. Several difficulties still remain in the way of its free 
reception into the circle of daily use by the profession at 
large, and among others, which time and increased confidence 
in its powers will banish, there are these, viz., that with the 
increased powers conferred on the microscope, a decrease in 
the expense, and also a diminution of the actual size of the 
instrument as a portable one, are great desiderata. The more 
readily it can be brought to the bedside, the more facilities 
which peculiarities of construction shall enable the observer 
to use it without performing the operation of a preliminary 
preparation and setting of it in order, the more favorable 
reception will it find at the hands of the medical student and 
practitioner ; and all these requirements will be rapidly met, 
if only the demand for them be made to those whose occupation 
it is to perfect the instrument. 
The object I have in view is not merely to urge on the 
study of disease by the use of this instrument, but also to 
show how much practical work yet remains to be done, and 
that by one class especially, the regular daily practitioner of 
medicine, whether attached to a hospital or moving in the 
circle of private practice. 
3. It has been my custom to examine the blood in all 
marked cases of disease, with the view of ascertaining if any- 
thing could be learned by such a process, and the following 
communication will show that my labour has not been lost, 
* Read before the Medical Society of Victoria, December 6, 1865. 
