244 THE MIcROSCOPE. 
Resolved, that these resolutions be spread upon the minutes of 
the society and a copy conveyed to his bereaved consort, with the 
assurance of our warmest sympathy and most sincere condolence. 
The society then adjourned. 
C. P. Batss, Rec. Sec. 
E DAT-ORMA L. 
HE remark is often heard, “I own a microscope, but I never 
use it, for I do not quite understand its manipulation, and 
the proper preparation of specimens is beyond me.” Reader, do 
you own a microscope, and if you do, what use are you making of 
it? When you bought the instrument years ago, perhaps, you deter- 
mined that you would learn its use and apply it to the practical 
parts of every day life. Have you done so? Has the microscope 
helped you to unravel any of the knotty questions which assail you 
daily in your professional work? Or have you consigned the instru- 
ment to a place under a glass shade on the mantel, or the dispensing 
counter, or somewhere in the parlor or library? If you are a 
physician, is not this microscope on the stand—which you never use, 
but which is so placed, intentionally, that your patients will think 
that you employ it in diagnosing your cases, on the order of fake ? 
And would you not condemn a like petty deceit in a fellow-prac- — 
titioner? What druggist is there who uses the microscope but is 
well paid for the time expended by the detection of frauds in his 
drug stock, the determining of crystalline deposits, and the examin- 
ation of sediments? To the dentist, also, the microscope has 
become an instrument of much importance, and the pages of dental 
literature are filled with enthusiastic reports of the results obtained 
from microscopical examinations. In fact, there is no profession, no 
trade, in which the microscope is not of the greatest practical use. 
For those who would like to know something of the practical 
portions of microscopy, nothing is of greater value and importance 
to them than attendance on the annual meetings of the American 
Society of Microscopists. At these gatherings the visitor not only 
obtains great help from the papers read and the discussions which 
follow, but coming in touch with the other members present, he, or 
she, receives a stimulus to renewed efforts not otherwise obtainable. 
There are to-day thousands of men and women in this country who 
own microscopes, and who need just this sort of help. The expense 
of attending the convention is only nominal, compared with the 
benefits to be derived. 
