REVIEW. 
Microscopic Objects, figured and described.—By Joun H. 
Martin, Honorary Secretary to the Middlesex and 
Mid-Kent Natural History Society. London, John Van 
Voorst, 1870. 
Tuts work contains 194 tolerably executed figures of what 
are sometimes called “ natural history objects,”’ among which 
we find, for instance, the “pollen of the evening primrose,” 
“askin parasite from the human nose,” and “ marble from the 
Temple of Diana, at Ephesus;” represented under various 
degrees of magnifying power, and some without any enlarge- 
mentatall. The figures are accompanied by short descriptions 
and a few hints as to preparation. When we say that the 
specimens selected are almost unclassified, and that the author 
does not claim to establish, by his delineations, any facts un- 
known before, or to contribute anything to the settlement of 
disputed points, the character of his book will, we think, be 
evident. It does not fall specially under the head of any one 
of the sciences which the microscope is used to illustrate, but 
rather appeals to those who are on the look-out for objects to 
use their microscope upon. It is obviously the work of a 
zealous and experienced field naturalist, who has brought 
together his materials from very various sources, and takes 
genuine delight in the beauty and strangeness of the forms 
which display themselves before him. 
Mr. Martin has evidently bestowed considerable pains upon 
the preparation of some of the objects which he figures, such 
as the rock sections, which, though not so successfully re- 
presented as some of the others, are samples of a field of 
activity, to which it is highly desirable that the attention of 
those who have microscopes, time, and the requisite patience 
should be drawn. ‘There is hardly any branch of micro- 
scopical science in which so much is to be made out, with 
regard to the commonest objects, as in this. An immense 
number of well-known rocks have never been examined by 
these processes; and yet, when such researches have been 
made, they have never failed to produce most interesting 
and valuable results. If every one of our country micro- 
scopists will set himself to find out what is actually known 
respecting the structure of those rocks or fossils of his own 
