The Microscope. 309 



that accessory is to be employed, those of medium thickness 

 will probably be all that are needed. The only objection is that 

 they may interfere with the proper focussing of the condenser, 

 as the thin slips will not. Some persons cut their own from the 

 best glass obtainable, but when the color, imperfections and 

 rough edges are considered, whatCA^er is gained in cost is not 

 offset by any other advantage. It is more economical in the end 

 to buy the best slips offered by the dealers. 



EDITOlCS 



*" DEPARTMENT 



=^*S 



SOME time ago Mr. George C. Taylor, of New Orleans, sent 

 me for examination a microscope lamp, of his own inven- 

 tion so far as its essential and peculiar parts are concerned. I 

 had become so interested in Mr. Taylor's epistolary description 

 of the appliance, and of what he had been able to do with it in 

 the study of Diatoms, that I welcomed it with enthusiasm and 

 with great expectations, which have not been disappointed, as 

 great expectations so often are disappointed. The lamp has so 

 fully substantiated Mr. Taylor's reports of its valuable qualities 

 that I have succumbed to the temptation to describe it some- 

 what extensively for the reader's benefit. Mr. Taylor is generous 

 enough to have placed at the disposal of all microscopists the 

 principle and its application, as well as to any dealer in micro- 

 scopical supplies that may be disposed to bring it into the 

 market. 



The lamp is, with one exception, made on the principle of the 

 old Hitchcock lamp, in which the flame was rendered more than 

 ordinarily intense by a forced draught, produced by a rapidly- 

 rotating fan driven by clock-work. In Mr. Taylor's application 

 of this, for which he claims no credit, the machinery is con- 

 tained in an urn-shaped vessel, from which the air is conveyed 

 by an appropriate means to a lamp at the opposite end, where 

 it partly counterbalances the weight of the motor. Through 

 the air passage is an aperture for the upright brass rod that 

 is screwed into a heavy tripod base, and carries a bull's-eye con- 



