The Microscope. 



285 



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Editor The Microscope : — 



Your July editorial on "Travelling Stands" inspires some 

 further suggestions coming from experience. For several years 

 I had one of those largest imposing " first-class stands " and two 

 or three kinds of pocket microscopes. After making this invest- 

 ment I became acquainted with the late Dr. Joseph Leidy, 

 whose unsurpassed work on the Rhizopods was then in process, 

 with the aid of a microscopical outfit not worth fifty dollars. 

 His obvious wisdom in respect to apparatus made me ashamed 

 of my extravagance. I sold the imposing stand and invested 

 again in a way to gain the double advantage of a travelling 

 stand which also serves all practical needs for work at home. 

 For the past seven years I have used in this double capacity 

 the Griffith Club microscope onh' and deem it the vade mecum 

 par excellence. Its compactness is a triumph of ingenuity, and 

 it unfolds for more varied uses than any other stand I have 

 seen. 



Why does it not supply the need as you describe, and not 

 merely that, but all other uses for a stand ? For vacation use, 

 the heavy turn-table foot, which gives this stand such a steady 

 base at home, may be omitted. Thus the whole weight of stand 

 and case is reduced to four pounds. All your requisites named 

 cannot be combined much lighter. 



Instead of the foot, a pedestal is furnished, having a screw at 

 its lower end, by which the stand may be fiistened to a stump or 

 log. In camp, a stake may be driven in the ground, inside the 

 tent, and the pedestal screwed to the top of the stake, to which 

 may also be fastened the lamp attachment of the microscope. 



At home, for my working purposes, the pedestal is screwed 

 in to the edge of my table. Thus the microscope is conveni- 

 ently at hand, yet out of the way of my work, and so secure 



