(82a) 
NEW BOOKS, WITH SHORT NOTICES. 
How to Choose a Microscope. By a Demonstrator. With eighty 
illustrations. London: Hardwicke and Bogue, 1877.—The author of 
the pamphlet now before us is highly to be admired for his modesty 
in concealing his name from the public, the more so as he has really 
done good work. We have read all the advice he has given, and we 
are perfectly satisfied with it. It is plain and matter-of-fact in its 
dealing with the instrument, and, moreover—a circumstance of great 
importance—no one man’s manufacture is paraded before the reader ; 
in fact, no allusion is throughout made to any maker’s name. But 
what is of importance is the fact that we have the opinion of one who 
is evidently practically experienced with the instrument he is describing 
on subjects which are of immense significance in the selection of a 
microscope, and which are nevertheless almost entirely unknown to 
the junior student who has to purchase a microscope. Advice is 
given in regard to the instrument itself, to its eye-pieces and 
objectives, and then to the various additional apparatus, such, for 
example, as the condenser, various illuminators, spectroscope, polari- 
scope, micrometer, compressorium, dissecting knives, &c. Finally, 
some sensible remarks are contained in the last chapter, entitled, 
“What ought I to give for a Microscope?” All this matter is nearly 
faultless. And especially would we commend the writer’s opinions 
on the subject of binocular microscopes. We know that on this point 
numbers will be against him, but we still think there is considerable 
truth in his objections to these instruments. 
And now we have a word to say in a depreciating tone. In the 
first place, the illustrations are abominable; in the second, they are 
most objectionably situated, half of the eighty being placed on a plate 
as the frontispiece, and half similarly situate on an end page of the 
pamphlet. Then, again, the system of employing different forms of 
type throughout the pages, is a habit for which we must take the 
author alone to task, and we must say we think it painful to anyone 
who possesses a sensitive vision. In conclusion, we can honestly 
recommend the pamphlet to intending workers at the microscope. 
PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 
“ On certain Amebe.’—This is a paper by Professor Leidy, read 
in October last before the Philadelphia Academy. He said that one 
of the species of Amceba which he had most commonly seen, he took 
to be the Ameba verrucosa of Ehrenberg, with which the A. natans of 
Perty, and the A, terricola of Greef, appeared to him to be synonymous. 
This species he had found in many places: in the crevices of the 
brick pavement in the yard attached to his residence, in brick ponds, 
