Royal Microscopical Society. 213 



each specimen of easy access, will be found in Mr. Norman's* 

 adaptation. In a mahogany box, 7 inches high and 4;| broad, 

 150 slides lay in racks horizontally, and by a marginal number are 

 easily got at and referred to. There is a diaphragm across the 

 middle of the box, and another running up the centre longways. 

 This gives four compartments, so many in each. A folding door at 

 each end provides easy access, and, with a handle on the top, the 

 box can be carried about anywhere. 



H. — Mr. James Smith f has described and figured what he 

 terms a microscopical cabinet, wherein the slides are arranged 

 after the mode of some entomological collections. Shaped like a 

 back-hinged book-box, on its being opened back the contained 

 slides are all seen at a glance, being each retained in place by a 

 double elastic band. If I am correctly informed. Prof. Hughes 

 Bennett, of Edinburgh, uses a form of box or serial cabinet similar 

 to the above. Other objections might be offered, but that the 

 slides all rest vertically is against its frequent adoption. 



I. — Lastly, as everything depends upon individual require- 

 ments, some wishing a small, others a larger case, it is hard to 

 recommend one form of cabinet that will do for all. Piper's, 

 George's, and Norman's, are each good in their way for small series, 

 but a larger-sized cabinet of square form, with trays coming out 

 separately, is the most preferable article. Mr. Beck sells a cheap 

 plain kind, made of polished deal wood, wherein the trays are card- 

 board. In this, as in more expensive sorts, every specimen is of 

 easy access. The latter lie flat, the numbers and name facing the 

 observer ; and labelhng is provided for outside the drawer. A 

 number of such boxes can be piled above one another, and by 

 degrees an extensive cabinet ultimately attained. 



It is now universally admitted that objects preserved in a moist 

 medium are retained in a sound state longer and better when laid 

 down flat. This is easily understood, for the finest and firmest 

 cement is not always a safe protection when the slide is tilted edge 

 upwards. 



In the case of a cabinet with drawers, these are better not too 

 deep ; although some drawers of sufficient depth to admit easily the 

 large-sized deep-celled slides are an essential desideratum. Unless 

 in collections devoted to special subjects, deep drawers for the re- 

 ception of larger objects need not be distributed throughout the 

 cabinet ; it is sufiicient if they are confined to the lowermost tiers. 

 In this way heavy specimens can be kept together, especially if ex- 

 ceeding in thickness the ordinary drawer's depth. The appropriate 

 position of such objects in the general series can be replaced by a 



* Manufacturer of microscopic objects, &c., 178, City Koad, London, E.G. 

 t ' Trans. Micros. Soc. and Journ.,' I860, vol. viii., 2nd Ser., p. 202. 



