::i84 The Microscope. 



BOOK REVIEWS. 



The Microscope in Theory and Practice : Translated from the German 

 of Professor Carl Nae^eh and Professor S Schwendener; witb numerous 

 illustrations. London: Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co., Paternoster 

 Square. Philadelphia: Jas. W. Queen & Co. Cloth, pp. 374. 1887. 



German-reading microscopists have long been familiar with this 

 work, and English readers are to be congratulated on now being 

 able to obtain such an excellent translation of part of it. The revis- 

 ion of the translation was begun under the direction of Mr. Crisp, 

 the well-known secretary of the Royal Microscopical Society, and 

 was completed under Mr. John May all, Jr., one of the editors of the 

 Journal. Unfortunately, just as the work was finished, all but the 

 part now before us was destroyed by fire. So far, however, as the 

 theory of the microscope and its accessories goes, this part is per- 

 haps the most important of the whole work. As the work is above 

 criticism, we can but give an idea of its contents, in order that our 

 readers may become aware of its helpfulness in much of their work. 



The whole work originally consisted of ten parts, the last three, 

 treating of Microphysics, Microchemistry and Morphology, being the 

 ones destroyed. The seven parts remaining are devoted to the fol- 

 lowing subjects: Part I., Theory of the Microscope, including its 

 component parts, the objective and eye-piece; chromatic and spheri 

 cal aberration; optical power of the microscope; illumination, etc. 

 Part II., The Mechanical Arrangement of the Microscope. Part III., 

 Testing the Microscope, discussing the testing of the optical power, 

 spherical aberration, chromatic aberration and flatness of field; deter- 

 mining the angle of aperture; magnifying power and focal length. 

 Part IV., Theory of Microscopic Observation, treating of observing 

 objects of different forms; interference phenomena; oblique illumi- 

 nation, etc. Part V., The Simple Microscope and Lantern Micro- 

 scope. Part VI., Technical Microscopy, including the preparation, 

 preservation and treatment of microscopic objects, together with the 

 measurement and drawing of them. Part VII., The Phenomena of 

 Polarization. 



All of the subjects are handled in a most masterly way, and 

 illustrations are added wherever required. The work should be in 

 the hands of every advanced microscopist, and, though necessarily 

 quite technical, the beginner will be able to extract much knowledge 

 not found elsewhere. 



