166 ME MiCtlOSCOPE. Nov. 



That depends on the boy, his teacher (if he has any), 

 his ability, his love for the study, his encouragement, his 

 finances, and other things. 



Among t le finest slides I ever saw were those made by a 

 boy of 16 years. Did he become a professional micros- 

 copist ? No, not at all, but .the spirit of investigation 

 was aroused in him to such an extent that he graduated 

 at Baldwin University, post-graduated at Princeton with 

 a degree of Sc. D., and now occupies the chair of 

 Physics in the polytecnic department of Case School of 

 Applied Science. The world knows his experiments with 

 the Roentgen or X-ray— Dr. D. C. Miller, A. M., Sc. D. 



This is perhaps one of the brightest examples I might 

 give, but others are doing surprising work, and are 

 getting an insight into nature. 



One lad of 13 of my acquaintance made a fine begin- 

 ning with pollen mounted and dried in balsam. Another 

 began by making sections of stems and piths of plants. 

 The two worked together and obtained a knowledge of 

 structural botany that probably they never would have 

 obtained otherwise. They also examined the sap of dif- 

 ferent plants, obtaining some surprising results by evapo- 

 ration. Many slides were spoiled, of course, but who is 

 or could be perfect from the begining. 



Another boy mounted spores of ferns, etc. and also 

 made slides of wings of insects, and with such a book 

 to study as was at his command he received a 

 training in comparative entomology which has proven 

 useful to him. 



Making slides is but a small part of the work. I 

 encourage laying more stress on making drawings of 

 everything, if possible, with the aid of a camera lucida. 



One fellow began by studying parasites injurious to 

 the horticulturists. At home he was met with opposi- 

 tion, but when his studying led to the partial 

 destruction of the pests and a partial crop of berries 



