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An Elementary Text-Book of the Microscope, including a 
description of the methods of Preparing and Mounting 
Ojects, &c. By J. W. Grirrirs, M.D., F.L.S., &e. 
London: Van Voorst. 
Dr. Grirrirx is too well known to microscopists not to 
ensure us that any work from his pen will be interest and 
value, and in the present one he has certainly given a very 
useful addition to his former labours. 
Its object “is to furnish an elementary course of instruc- 
tion in the use of the microscope, and in its application to 
the examination of the structure of plants and animals.” 
But, in addition to this, it also includes figures and descrip- 
tions of the “ principal structures and more minute forms of 
both the vegetable and the animal kingdom, which are com- 
mon and readily procurable.”” <A chapter is also given upon 
the optical principles of the microscope, and a sketch of the 
subject of polarized light. 
Intended, as it is, for beginners or novices in the use of 
the microscope, the work, of course, contains much already 
well known to those in the habit of making microscopic 
observations, and does not enter very deeply into many points ; 
but what it does contain is well and clearly expressed, and, 
so far as we can perceive, all that is really likely to be of use 
to the class for whom it is intended is given in it. The 
numerous and beautiful coloured plates, which appear to be 
most carefully and correctly executed, give the work a special 
character, and we have no doubt that it will be found to 
supply the place of numerous larger and more expensive 
books to a large class of readers, and to all beginners who 
may not have determined to devote themsclves to any 
special subject of research, but may employ their instruments 
in a discursive way through all the realms of nature. 
We cannot give a better idea of the book than by going 
over the chapter of contents. In the first chapter we 
have an account of the structure of the microscope, with 
details of the various forms of apparatus which are intended 
to assist its use. In the second chapter the beginner 
will find a good description of how he is to proceed in 
the mounting of objects. This is a subject which deserves 
more attention than it has yet received. The best possible 
way of noting the progress of observation with the micro- 
scope is to make preparations of the objects seen. This 
is one great advantage of microscopic inquiries—that their 
VOL. IV.— NEW SER. P 
