368 THE MICROSCOPE. 
ate, but which he will at last live up to. The esthetic craze of 
striving to “live up to” a blue china jug has happily passed, 
but the effect of living up to one’s privileges remains, and the 
effort should be even the beginner’s. 
On every stage there should be some kind of a movable plate 
on which the slide shall be placed, the whole moving easily 
under the impulse of the fingers. Many stands, the majority of 
so-called Students’ stands, have no such plate, spring clips 
being substituted, the slide to be placed under them and moved 
about by the fingers. This arrangement answers well provided 
the clips will themselves remain permanently in position while 
the slide is manipulated. The fingers are soon educated to per- 
form the most delicate movements, guiding the slide by the 
gentlest pressure, and speedily learning to keep even a living 
and a lively microscopic creature in the field; but to do these 
things the spring clips must not press too heavily on the slide, 
and they especially must be firmly and immovably fixed in 
their sockets. As a rule they are fitted so loosely into the holes 
provided for them on the stage, that scarcely more than a 
breath is needed to move them. The result is, that during the 
constant manipulations of the slide, they are gradually urged 
more and more to one side or the other, until finally they strike 
the edge of the cover glass, push it out of place and, it may be, 
ruin the object. The microscopist’s eye is engaged at the ocular, 
and his attention is concentrated on the image, so that he can 
not pay special heed to the spring clips to see that they are not 
threatening his cover glass. If the dealer offers a stand with 
very loose spring clips, reject it until he remedies the defect by 
fastening them in their sockets. Then manipulations as delicate 
as any to be made anywhere may be made with the slide under 
them; but a stand with loose clips is a delusion and a snare, 
The best, simplest, and most satisfactory device in the shape 
of a slide holder, or a movable stage plate, is that adopted by 
Mr Joseph Zentmayer. It consists of a glass plate, sometimes 
eircular, with a central circular aperture, and held down at the 
back by a single ivory-poined screw, under which it moves 
smoothly and with great freedom, the pressure of the screw and 
the consequent ease of the stage movements being easily regu- 
lated. The slide simply rests against a narrow strip or ledge of 
brass, moving only when the glass plate is moved. There is no 
