162 The Microscope. 



medical college, having any pretentions to the name, has estab- 

 lished a chair of dermatology, and the younger generation is 

 endeavoring to fit itself to some extent for the successful recog- 

 nition and treatment of diseases of the skin. This is a difficult 

 task, however, for there can be no reasonable doubt in the mind 

 of any intelligent physician that dermatology particularly calls 

 for acuteness of observation, the careful exercise of good judge- 

 ment, and a proper discrimination in forming conclusions. The 

 niceties which are developed in the course of a critical examina- 

 tion are such as often lead to important deductions of the great- 

 est therapeutical value. This it is which often necessitates special 

 training in order not to permit these fine points to escape de- 

 tection. It is these minutise which constitute the difficulty in 

 the way of the beginner, and it is a knowledge of these which 

 produce special skill. While it cannot be expected that every 

 one practising medicine should be as intimately acquainted with 

 the details of dermatology as those who devote their entire at- 

 tention to the subject, a certain amount of information which 

 may be acquired with comparative ease should certainly be 

 learned. This is a matter rather difficult to define, but the 

 diagnosis of typical cases should present no difficulty in the 

 majority of affections, and in some cases when doubt exists we 

 have a means which is so easy of application and so certain in 

 its results, that it becomes a source of astonishment that it is 

 not made available in more instances than we see. There can 

 be no doubt of the importance of making a correct diagnosis. 

 But, although a good training in the observation of subjective 

 symptoms- noted in a large number of cases, will fit one to make 

 a correct diagnosis in a large number of diseases. Certain mixed 

 types will occasionally present themselves in which recourse 

 must be had to certain helps to solve a doubt, and among these 

 one of the most valuable to the dermatologist is the microscope. 

 The applications of the microscope in the practice of medicine, 

 for the purpose of making diagnoses, are to-da}' so numerous 

 that it would be a work of supererogation to attempt a mere 

 recital of them. -That they are various and in the highest degree 

 valuable no one would deny, despite the fact that the information 

 obtained is often of a negative character. Notwithstanding this 

 it so frequently supplies us with important positive information, 

 that it has almost become reproach to a progressive physician 



