The Microscope. 15 



the most complete that the means at my disposal would allow. 

 It is not advisable to contract bad microscopical habits by using 

 a cheap and almost worthless stand with French Triplets, or to 

 acquire erroneous ideas of appearance and structure by the use 

 of such instruments, only to be forced again to travel over the 

 same road to correct improper methods and to unlearn errone- 

 ous notions. The beginner should be started arigiit at the be- 

 ginning. There is in microscopy a straight and narrow- path 

 leading to the light, as there is elsewhere; and there is a broad 

 and easy road that leads to microscopical destruction. I ^ould 

 not have the reader enter on the latter. To avoid it he should 

 seek the best of everything microscopical within his reach. The 

 learned editor of the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society has 

 exi)ressed the same teaching in the following words : "It ap- 

 pears to us regrettable that so many opticians should struggle to 

 issue ' Students ' microscopes, the chief aim of which appears to 

 be low cost of production regardless of the modern require- 

 ments in such instruments. Our own experience is that with a 

 stand well equipped with substage appliances for controlling 

 the illumination, every good objective may be made to yield 

 images at least fifty per cent, better than are possible without 

 such appliances. A ' student ' should obviously commence his 

 training in microscopy by learning to use his optical battery in 

 the most effective manner, which practically necessitates his 

 being provided with a stand altogether superior in construction 

 to those usually supplied as ' students ' microscopes." 



But when about to select a stand the beginner shouM first de- 

 cide what he wants to do with it. This I have repeated and re- 

 iterated, and I do so because of its great importance. A small 

 foreign stand made on the continental model,or a small Ameri- 

 can stand with a divided body tube and no substage provisions 

 for optical development, will not be usable for all purposes, as a 

 large and complete American stand will be. For the study of 

 the innumerable common objects mountable by the student 

 himself, the small low stand is sufficient; and these objects are 

 valuable, instructive and commendable in many ways, but I sup- 

 pose that the beginner will desire to become an investigator, after 

 ,he has had some experience as a looker on when pretty things 

 are exhibited. Complex and complete stands may be used for 

 attractive specimens, and for investigations as well. 



