1896 THE MICROSCOPE. 151 



know. A young physician asks an old one for the use 

 of his microscope to examine a specimen of urine, as- 

 suring its owner that he is familiar with the instrument, 

 having had instruction in college ; permission granted, 

 and slide prepared, and the observer exclaims, "The 

 most beautiful specimen of a cast I have ever seen:" the 

 owner of the instrument says, "That looks like vege- 

 table matter and not a cast." " No," said the other, 

 "that is a urinary cast; I have seen many of them." 

 A microscopical examination of the container and its 

 contents revealed a corncob for a cork ; what the cast 

 was you may readily infer. 



A physician of several years' standing and the posses- 

 sor of a good microscope at an autopsy of his announced 

 that the patient's death was due to a disease of the kid- 

 neys, that she had been passing blood, pus, all forms of 

 casts and other bad material with the urine. The aut- 

 opsy, however, revealed ulceration with pus formation, 

 degeneration and rupture of the gall-bladder, produced 

 by impacted gall-stones, while the kidneys were practi- 

 cally norma), showing no structural deojeneration. From 

 whence, then, came the blood, pus, casts and debris, 

 which was alleged to have been seen ? These cases 

 could have been none other than of mistaken identity ; 

 something was inferred that did not exist. 



The conclusion is therefore reached, justly or other- 

 wise, that the eye and understanding must be educated 

 independemtly along certain lines before the manipu- 

 lation of the microscope becomes satisfactory and trust- 

 worthy ; objects must be seen and known relatively and 

 in their entirety before being resolved into their compo- 

 nent elements; the macroscopical appearance of an object 

 must precede its microscopical appearance. 



The physician must know in what menstruum and under 

 what conditions the objects for which he is searching 

 exists or are developed. Neither is it enough for him 



