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Tue Microscope. 81 
may have French triplets) and see whether that pain in his back 
is really ‘‘ Bright’s disease,” as he fears, or only ‘‘ back ache.” 
The physician will then, with extreme gravity, put a drop of 
urine upon a slide and perhaps look at it for a whole minute. 
When he finds a cotton fiber (which he supposes to be a tube 
cast) he will immediately show the extreme value of a medical 
education by knocking “ horse-sense” in the head with: * Why, 
my dear sir, I am sorry to have to tell you so, but you really 
have Bright’s disease, for I have found tube casts in your urine.” 
The patient will then receive “treatment” and, strange as it 
may seem, may live for years; and the physician, without any 
undue conceit, will actually believe the longevity of the patient 
an evidence of his skill:—more than that—he may read a paper 
before the County Medical Society upon “The Curability of 
Bright’s Disease’ and bring up the patient as the horrible ex- 
ample. 
Now, with such cases as these staring us in the face, I think 
I may be pardoned for bringing to notice a few simple points, 
which may put the initial microscopist upon his guard; and en- 
able him to avoid some of these peculiar—but perhaps not un- 
natural mistakes. 
All urine intended for microscopical examination should be 
taken, if possible, from that which is first passed in the morning. 
It should he placed in a conical vessel so that the sediment may 
be collected in as small a space as possible. After standing for 
five to ten hours, a sma]! quantity of the deposit may be drawn 
up with a dipping tube. 
Now, the question of the temporary mount is a matter o 
no small importance. Many persons recommend the ordinary 
live-box or animalcule cage for this purpose; but in about nine 
out of ten cases a person will find the brass flange above the 
cover a downright nuisance and in many cases the means of in- 
juring a high power objective. Concave slides are frequently 
spoken of in “ the books” as being convenient, but there is per- 
haps nothing which will give better results than an ordinary 
plane slide, so fixed that the cover-glass may not come in abso- 
lute contact with it—that is, the cover should be supported in 
such a way as to give considerable thickness to the drop of 
urine. This may be done in various ways. Two narrow strips 
