THE AMERICAN 



MONTHLY 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



Vol. XVIII. JUNE, 1896. No. 6 



Practical Photomicrography. 



By W. C. BORDEN, xM. D., F. R. M. S., 



CAPTAIN, MEDICAL DEPARTMEVT, U. S. ARMY. 

 WITH FRONTISPIECE. 



With the extensive use of the microscope in medicine 

 and scientific research the need has been felt of obtaining 

 exact pictorial record of many of the objects seen. Draw- 

 ings, either free-hand or by aid of the camera lucida, are 

 extensively used, but they are of necessity always more 

 or less diagrammatic and often fail to give the necessary 

 exactness, both from the impossibility of eliminating the 

 personal equation of the draughtsman and from inability 

 to reproduce the appearance of organic structure by line 

 and stipple. Photographic processes, on the other hand 

 give pictures which in detail of form and structure are 

 second only to the objects themselves; and the value of 

 good photomicrographs as aids in teaching and for com- 

 parison, for future reference, and for publication, is gen- 

 erally accepted as unequalled, and their use is becoming 

 more and more common. 



But the extensive use of photomicrography has been 

 prevented by several causes. These causes are com- 

 plexity of apparatus, supposed difficulty of technique, 

 difficulty of obtaining proper and always available light, 

 and supposed large amount of time consumed. In view 

 of these objections and of the value of the results ob- 

 tained, all simplifications of technique and apparatus 



