84 Tue Microscope. 
SLIDE LABELS. 
E, H. GRIFFITH. 
ve beautiful and very practical labels for microscope 
slides may be quickly made with the brush and pen. On 
the ends of the slides turn smooth disks of good clear zine 
white cement, and with finishing colors border to suit the fancy. 
With a pen write or print on the white center whatever is 
desired. 
ProFEssIoONAL Microscopy.—So long as mind is associated 
with matter, uses its energies, or is obstructed by its limitations, 
will the knowledge of the laws of physical life interest man 
greatly and aid him to his goal. Indeed, biological investigation 
is, if we mistake not, the most absorbing of present purely sci- 
entific pursuits. The nature of the force called life may con- 
tinue an enigma: its law of work, however, may yet become 
fully known, and this fulness of knowledge may better incaleu- 
lably man’s estate. But biology owes its existence to the micro- 
scope, and to that instrument must it look for its progress and 
its triumphs. And what,in its present state, is this instrument, 
with its immediate accessories, and all its various kinds of sub- 
sidary apparatus? and what the scope and quality of intelli- 
gence, of knowledge, of training of eye and hand, embraced in 
its mastery? ‘To this question, the story, however simply told, 
of the work performed by Dr. Koch in his studies of bacterial 
life or by Drs. Dallinger and Drysdale in their researches on 
the origin and life-histories of the “‘least and lowest of living 
things” would be a grand sufficient reply. There is, then, a 
science of microscopy. Its mastery is peculiarly difficult, re- 
quiring rare sagacity and dexterity, and a lifetime of devotion, 
and its study has become a profession. This fact is not known 
to all, it having grown too fast for any but a watchful eye to 
keep pace with it. “There is no science of microscopy—the 
microscope is only an instrument,” was said in our hearing a 
few days ago. A gun is but an instrument; yet is there not a 
science of gunnery ? and its acquisition is an indispensable part 
of the professional soldier’s education. The importance of a 
special and systematic course of instruction in microscopy is 
gaining recognition in some of our best institutions of learning. 
—Journal N. Y. Mic. Society. 
