54 The Microscope. 



If you can trace those delicate threads, see the little thickenings 

 at each meeting point of those fine filaments, and perceive dis- 

 tinctly the minute dark spaces between the reticulations, you 

 may be sure of four things of the greatest importance to the 

 microscopist ; you may be satisfied that the objective is good; 

 that it is properly adjusted ; that the illumination has been well 

 manipulated, and that the observer's eye has been trained to a 

 praiseworthy and enviable degree. The reticulation is easily 

 seen and easily obtained ; it is diflacult to see and difficult to 

 demonstrate. When the novice has made the experiment he 

 will be able to reconcile these apparently contradictory asser- 

 tions. 



Ranvier, in his Traite Technique d'Eistologie, says that this 

 reticulum is an optical illusion, produced by the wrinkling of 

 the surface of the globule. If this is true, then it is the most 

 realistic illusion by which microscopist has ever been deceived. 

 And if it is true, the unanimity of action by which those 

 wrinkles assume the appearance of a net-work and manage to 

 present the illusion of a minute thickening at the points of 

 junction between each fibril, is certainly astonishing. But this 

 beautiful structure within the red corpuscles, be it illusory or 

 not, may be studied with a homogeneous one-twelfth inch objec- 

 tive or with a higher power, with a similar one-tenth and with a 

 homogeneous one-eighth. A good one-fifth and a half-inch solid 

 eye-piece will show it well, after the observer has learned what 

 to look for. It is high power work ; even the one-twelfth must 

 be eye-pieced up to at least 1000 diameters ; objectives of lower 

 power than a one-twelfth must be super-excellent to bear the 

 strain of such high power eye-piecing. If the light is made 

 sl.ghtly oblique the effect will be improved and the reticulations 

 will then stand out with delightful distinctness. The work is 

 not difficult, yet it demands care and delicate manipulation, and 

 it is worth ever^^ effort. 



In connection with this structure there appears to have been 

 a loss of opportunity, or perhaps it may be described by another 

 word, since scientific meu that have been present at recent exe- 

 cutions of criminals by electricity have failed to examine the 

 red corpuscles fer any changes in the net-work. At this dis- 

 tance from the electrical chair it seems that a good chance is 

 there presented to study the action of the fluid on this micro- 



