282 Transactions oftJie [TorJluErim' 



completed by Mr. Smitli ; and altliough the instrument has been in 

 constant use from that time to the present, its working powers, of 

 both the carrier and the White's lever-stage, are as smooth and steady 

 as when first from the manufacturer's hands. And here I may re- 

 mark, that when the instrument was constructed a rack and pinion 

 stage was also made for it, so that should the lever-stage get out of 

 order the reserved stage might readily be applied in place of it ; but 

 from that day to this the lever-stage has never been removed from 

 its original position ; all that has been required to keep it in perfect 

 working order bemg, about once a year, to touch the exposed por- 

 tions of the working surfaces with a little oil ; and then, after work- 

 ing the stage about to spread the oil, to wipe the surfaces with a 

 piece of wash-leather. These progressive improvements in the defini- 

 tion and beauty of the combinations, and in the facility of the me- 

 chanical portions of the instrument, tended greatly to the extension 

 of a taste for microscopical investigation, and microscopes rapidly 

 increased in number ; but amidst these incitements to a taste for the 

 study of the minute beauties of creation we must not forget the 

 powerful influence arising from the invaluable method of mounting 

 in Canada balsam, which has rendered permanent thousands of in- 

 teresting objects that would otherwise have served but for a momen- 

 tary exhibition of their beauties, and have then been wiped off the 

 glass, and lost to future admirers. 



This valuable and efiective mode of mounting microscopical ob- 

 jects, I am informed by Mr. Topping, was originally suggested by 

 Mr. J. T. Cooper, an eminent analytical chemist, and it was first 

 applied to the preparation of large objects for exhibition by the solar 

 microscope by a person of the name of Newth, who was employed 

 by the late Mr. Carpenter, the optician, of Eegent Street, to exhibit 

 them with the microscope, and who subsequently carried on a very 

 profitable trade in objects so mounted. Mr. Bond afterwards obtained 

 the recipe fi:om Newth, and supplied the microscope at the Adelaide 

 Gallery with such objects for a considerable period, but the j)rocess 

 still remained a secret. 



Some of the objects thus prepared were brought to one of my 

 Monday evening meetings at CritchiU Place about thirty years ago 

 by Mr. Goadby, who exhibited them to Messrs. Alfred White, Page, 

 and myself; and you may imagine how much we were interested 

 and dehghted by the distinct and beautiful view which we obtained, 

 for the first time, of preparations of wings of butterflies, moths, 

 and other specimens. Having viewed several of them, Mr. White 

 turned to Mr. Goadby, and said, "Well, but how are these 

 splendid things mounted ? " " Ah," said Goadby, " that is a pro- 

 found secret known only to one other gentleman and myself, and I 

 am pledged not to divulge it." This was a sad announcement, but 

 there was no help for it, and so we continued our examination of the 



