THE MICROSCOPE. 25 



then we will let the gentleman who considers "there is not much in 

 it " think over to himself what we do know. The red and white 

 corpuscles of the blood, although of the highest importance both in 

 health and disease, and in the latter, often have our remedies direct- 

 ed to them, are so exceedingly minute in iiize that they cannot be 

 seen by the unaidedeye, and consequently we never could have known 

 of their existence without the microscope. Nor could we have known 

 without it anything in regard to the net-work of capillary vessels 

 that connect the arteries and veins. Turn the attention to the 

 prima via, commencing with the lips, lined with mucous membrane 

 throughout its whole length. How studded is it from commence- 

 ment to termination with most important organs, all of which are 

 microscopical in size. We could have no knowledge how digestion 

 and absorption take place, if we had not the means of magnifying 

 the size of the organs by means of which it is accomplished. How 

 came we to know of the ascini of the liver, containing a portal capil- 

 lary within and the other vessels disposed without ? Without mag- 

 nifying lenses we could have known nothing of the peculiarities of 

 the hepatic circulation. And the same can be said of the novelties 

 of the arrangement of blood-vessels of the kidneys, and the curious 

 Malpighian bodies which the microscope exhibits so beautifully. 

 And these singular bodies remind us of the spermatozoa and their 

 active movements, which are microscopical. 



But the gentleman who thinks there is not much in the micro- 

 scope, may say that he admits that the microscope has done much 

 in histology, etc., but that the general practitioner, having learned 

 all about its discoveries in books, has no need of the instrument in 

 his practice. Cousequently, "there is not much in it " for him, for 

 he has no time to study histology. We think, however, he would 

 be a better doctor if he only studied the histology of the leaf of the 

 flower occasionally, for which he might certainly find some time now 

 and then. But the microscope is of the most important service in 

 practice, so much so that it ought to be called into use every day. 

 The information which is obtained from urinary deposits has now 

 become so important by the progress of pathology that the intelligent 

 physician feels called upon to examine them in a large number of 

 his cases ; and the microscope by defining the crystals or exhibiting 

 epithelial cells, tube casts, etc., discloses, oftentimes, at once the 

 most important information. Again, how often is the medical attend- 



