1892.] MICROSCOPICAL JOUKJNAL. 203 



terated. I feel confident that the pharmacist will not shrink from 

 the use of the microscope as an invaluable aid in enabling him to 

 discover whether he is being imposed upon or not, when it is 

 made clear to his mind that the processes involved in this work 

 are very simple, inexpensive, and easily as well as rapidly car- 

 ried out. If he can be brought to see and appreciate this fact, 

 the time will come when it will be as common to see a micro- 

 scope in his laboratory as it is to see there his test-tube, flasks, 

 and percolators. 



It is not my purpose to enter into details about the mechanism 

 or theory of the microscope, and I will assume that every one is 

 conversant with these. I will hence at once proceed to enumer- 

 ate what I consider to be the requisites for a microscopical outfit 

 such as will suffice for the examination of any plant, drug, or 

 chemical that may come up for examination in the routine of a 

 pharmacist's career. In the first place, a microscope such as will 

 magnify from thirty to five hundred diameters is essential ; then 

 object-glasses 1x3 inches in size, made of ordinary window-glass ; 

 cover-slips for the same of very thin glass, as can be bought at a 

 very moderate price from almost any optician or dealer in micro- 

 scopical supplies — a box of twenty-five of these will last for 

 years ; also a razor, which is not an unknown quantity to most 

 men ; a few needles inserted in wooden handles to facilitate their 

 manipulation, and a few good-sized corks of good quality. In 

 addition to these are wanted a wash-bottle with distilled water, a 

 watch-glass, and a few drop-bottles containing glycerine, alcohol, 

 and several dye stufts in solution to be used as staining agents. For 

 the uninitiated — or initiated, too, for that matter — it is advisable, 

 if not necessary, to have a book of plates or drawings of sections 

 of all the various drugs as they appear when viewed through the 

 microscope. Unfortunately there are very few of these extant, 

 due largely to the fact that this branch of pharmacv has so long lain 

 dormant. As we advance, however, and the demand increases, 

 books will soon make their appearance " en masse''' and among 

 them, I have no doubt, will be found many excellent series of 

 drawings of sections of all drugs, which will enable the pharma- 

 cist-microscopist to at once recognize the drug he is examining 

 in section under his microscope. 



While working with Prof. Fliickiger at Strassburg, I made the 

 acquaintance of an excellent little collection of drawings of sec- 

 tions of drugs as they appear to the eye when seen through the 

 microscope. It is in French, unfortunately, but that does not 

 affect the value of the drawings, which remain the same for all 

 tongues, and is published at Paris by the " Librairie F. Savy, 77 

 Boulevard Saint Germain," and has as collaborators and editors 

 Professors J. Godfrin and Ch. Noel, of the College of Pharmacy 

 of Nancy. It is entitled " ^//ai- Manuel de L' Histologie des 

 Drogues Simples" which, translated into English, reads, 

 " Manual of the Histology of the Simpler Drugs." Mr. Gerock, 



