190 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [August, 



EDITORIAL. 



Microscopy is a Science. 



By microscopy is liere meant the special learning relating to 

 the construction and use of the microscope and of its various ac- 

 cessory apparatus. The microscope is not a simple tool but a 

 complex and delicate mechanism around which a vast mass ot 

 special learning has been accumulating for many decades ; this 

 special knowledge has already assumed an orderly arrangement, 

 and the ultimate principles on which the various manipulations 

 are founded have been generalized to such an extent as to fairly 

 entitle microscopy to be ranked as one of the sciences. To be 

 properly studied, objects must first receive more or less special 

 preparation, and the necessary knowledge can only be acquired 

 by patient study. Almost all of the technical processes of mi- 

 croscopy as used in distinct lines of research have much in com- 

 mon with each other. The same microtome and turn-table, stain- 

 ing and mounting, and finishing media, the same slides and covers 

 and labels and forceps and needles, are used in many difierent re- 

 searches. But the knowledge is the same, it is certain, it has 

 been verified and systematized, and it is such in quantity as to 

 amount to a science. 



Search the encyclopiudias and dictionaries with care, and Hnd, 

 if possible, a definition of science which will not fairly include 

 what is above-described as the Science of Microscopy. 



Chambers' Encyclopa'dia defines a science " as the name for 

 such portions of human knowledge as have been more or less 

 generalized, systematized, and verified." Generality as opposed 

 to mere particulars, system as opposed to random arrangement. 

 The quality of the knowledge is of more consequence than the 

 quantity. Theoretical and practical sciences are distinguished. 



Theoretical science embraces a distinct department of nature, 

 and is so arranged as to give in the most compact form the entire 

 body of ascertained knowledge in that department. Such are 

 Mathematics, Chemistry, Physiology, Zoology, etc. 



A practical science is the application of scientifically ascer- 

 tained facts and laws in one or more departments, to some prac- 

 tical end, as for example, Navigation, Engineering, Mining, 

 Medicine, etc. True it is that microscopy does not embrace any 

 one department of Nature, but it is most certainly an " applica- 

 tion of scientifically ascertained facts and laws in one or more de- 

 partments to some practical end," the end always being to render 

 some definite natural object (by technical manipulation) avail- 

 able for the purposes of study or of vision. 



Webster says that an art is that which depends on practice 

 or performance, and science that which depends on abstract or 

 speculative principles. The theory of music is a science, the 

 practice of it an art. 



