The Microscope. 



Published on the IOth of Each Month, 



At 21 State Street, Detroit, Mich. 



All articles for publication, books for review and exchanges should be addressed to 

 "The Microscope," 83 Lafayette Ave., Detroit, Mich. 



Subscriptions, Advertisements and all business matters are attended to by the pub- 

 lishers, D. O. Haynes & Company, P. O. Box 583, Detroit, Mich. 



No receipt will be sent for subscriptions received unless specially requested. 



Specimens for examination should be sent to the Microscope Laboratory, 83 Lafayette 

 Avenue, Detroit, Mich. In all cases the transportation charges on these specimens must 

 be prepaid, and special directions for paclfing and shipping will gladly be sent upon 

 application. 



Vol. VII. DETROIT, MAY, 1887. No. 5 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



SOME SIMPLE LIFE-SLIDES— A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 



DR. ALFRED C. STOKES. 



A S the Editor of The Microscope has done me the honor to ask 

 -*■ ^ for a description of the life-slides, growing-cells and similar 

 contrivances that I use in the examination of minute animal life, I 

 cheerfully comply with the request, although the little " dodges " 

 are all simple and all easily made by the microseopist himself. 

 They are furthermore probably familiar to the reader, since they are 

 only such as would be likely to occur to any worker with the micro- 

 scope. In the writer's case it adds an indefinable charm to his 

 observations if he can make his own tools, however simple or inar- 

 tistic they may be, or however roughly finished. Elegant contri- 

 vances and costly ones can be purchased, but I have found that 

 hastily-made and home-made productions are often more satisfactory 

 in results than the elaborate affairs offered by the opticians. The 

 following paragraphs are therefore descriptive of the home-made 

 life-slides which the writer has for some time had in daily use, and 

 has thus far found to be all that is needed for his own work. The 

 reader will, I hope, forgive the fi-equent appearance of the first 

 personal pronoun singular. There seems to be little harm in saying 

 "I" when you mean it. 



In most cases I take foi covers lai'ge thin glass squares only. 

 There are several advantages to be had in their use in this connec- 

 tion over that of thin circles, one being the facility with which the 

 water supply can be renewed. By carefully adding, with a camel's 

 hair brush, a drop of fresh water at the corner of a large square 

 cover projecting beyond the cement cell, the fluid will usually flow 



