112 The Microscope. 



special blood corpuscles under given conditions, yet when the- 

 identity of arsenious acid is called in (juestion, the writer depends 

 upon chemical reaction; still, in tliis instance the writer con- 

 siders his unauthorized microscopical examination of this aniline- 

 as strongly confirmatorj^ of the authorized chemical analysis 

 made by Dr Johnson, chemist of the Charity Hospital, New Or- 

 leans. 



The slide of aniline was placed in my cabinet, remaining there- 

 for six weeks, when, having occasion to refer to it, instead of two- 

 or three dots of aniline I was confronted with a picture about 

 Jxf inch in size, very plainly revealing a death's head and the- 

 head of an old man with long beard and hair, either appearing in 

 the same place, dependent upon the direction of the light. The 

 specimen was not mounted till after this revelation, when I made- 

 a second dry mount of it in hope of preserving it as a curiosity, 

 not as a freak of Nature, but the result of some physical law yet 

 unknown to science. The specimen is still intact, and is open to 

 inspection. I am not a so-called spiritualist, nor do I believe in- 

 the so-called supernatural. That an image of an old man should 

 appear, as if photographed in iridescent colors, I do not think 

 beyond the bounds of present scientific explanation, but the 

 skull forces me to the wild query, '' Are we yet to discover a 

 physical law by which it may be proved that thought acts upon 

 matter?" If so, the skull can be accounted for. 



Perhaps it will not be microscopically irrelevant for me ta 

 make the personal statement that I believe Mind to be the ema-^ 

 nation of (iod within us, relegating all else to Energy and Matter^ 

 awaiting with an ever onward effort in behalf of the advance-^ 

 ment of science though the gathering be but a drop at a time. 



Returning to matters more closely connected with microscopy ,^ 

 perhaps a word about a hap-hazzard mounting cement may in- 

 terest some one. Using the microscope more than the mounting 

 table, it once so happened that I was out of white zinc and other 

 kindred cements. An unexpected emergency for some mounts 

 placed me in a dilemma ; especially so as I was on a plantation, 

 out of reach of a dealer. Necessity whetted my wits thus. 

 Scraping the waste debris from a lot of varied cement bottles I dis- 

 solved the same in benzol. After filtering, and evaporating to 

 proper consistency it proved to be the best mounting cement I 

 have ever used ; almost coming up to the standard of an 



