100 THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS, 
not without its uses. In a former age the popular desire for relig- 
ious relics, originating in the practice of assembling for worship at 
the tombs of saints, and erecting sanctuaries on such sites, rendered 
religious imposture an easy task. I need not refer to some of the 
curlosities of nature that were said to have been then exhibited, 
such as the “quill from the wing of the angel Gabriel.” But we all 
know that done and blood have not only been powerful agents, as 
saintly relics, in the maintenance of religious faith, but have also 
been the means of effecting imposture in both religion and science. 
I will therefore allude to the ways in which the microscope may 
detect imposture in these forms. 
A transverse section of the shaft of a long bone of a mammal 
shows in its microscopical structure a number of circular areas, 
each area representing a section of a small cylindrical rod of bone, 
having a minute opening in its centre, called the Haversian canal, 
which is a branch of the large cavity of the entire bone, and, like 
it, is filled in the natural state with marrow and blood vessels. 
Round each Haversian canal are seen a series of irregular concentric 
circles, each circle having dark expansions upon it, representing 
cavities in the osseous tissue ; each of these cavities or reservoirs, 
called lacunz, has a number of extremely fine tubes, called 
canaliculi, branching from it and joining each other, and pene- 
trating the minutest portions of the tissue. These canaliculi are 
too small for a blood corpuscle to enter, but the serum of the 
blood passes through them to nourish the bone. Professor 
Quekett first pointed out the difference in the size and arrange- 
ment of these lacunz and canaliculi in different classes and orders 
of vertebrata. It has been found that the size of the animal 
bears no relation to the size of its lacunze, but that the latter have a 
decided relation to the size of the blood corpuscles, which of 
course differ considerably in different classes and orders of verte- 
brated animals. Hence, as Dr. Carpenter remarks, “ It is gene- 
rally possible, by the microscopic examination of the merest frag- 
ment of a bone, to pronounce with great probability as to the 
natural family to which it has belonged”; and, therefore, some 
forms of imposture, either scientific or religious, may, within 
certain limits, be thus detected. 
ae. Sorby has shown how, with his micro-spectroscope, the 
z000 part of a grain of the colouring matter of a blood-clot is 
sufficient to reveal its character ; and Dr. Day described in 1867, 
in the Australian Medical Journal, how, by the addition of 
tincture of guaiacum and “ ozonised ether” to blood, a bright 
blue colour is produced, and this test has been found even more 
sensitive than that of the spectroscope, since it has been stated 
that ;:4,55 of a grain can be thus detected. It has also been 
found that tinting the corpuscles with aniline colours is a valuable 
