1881.J 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



231 



department of science is an excuse 

 given for all their shortcomings ; but 

 it is partly owing to this very lack of 

 time that I should insist upon the in- 

 troduction of improved apparatus. 

 The instruction in the theoretical 

 part of the course is, with few ex- 

 ceptions, good, and as thorough as 

 the time will permit. One almost uni- 

 versal failing, however, is a lack of 

 enthusiasm on the part of the in- 

 structors — a failure on their part to 

 impress upon the student the great 

 practical importance of the study of 

 the healthy and diseased human 

 structures, microscopically. This is 

 evidenced by want of interest among 

 some of the students, who claim to 

 learn only what is practical. Let us 

 hastily review a course as given at 

 one of our best and most thorough 

 institutions. 



A few hurried remarks about the 

 microscope, generally introduces the 

 course. Any one, however, who is to 

 use a microscope, for any purpose, 

 should be able to choose one for him- 

 self, with perfect working parts and 

 furnished with enough of the modern 

 appliances to render it adaptable to 

 his purposes. To depend entirely upon 

 the word of the optician is apt to 

 prove unsatisfactory, in these days, 

 when every spectacle peddlar is 

 dubbed optician. Hence, the pro- 

 priety of sound common-sense in- 

 struction, as to what a microscope 

 should be. The advantages of the 

 fine adjustment moving the entire 

 body, and the disadvantages of its 

 being on the nose, the thin stage, 

 swinging-bar and sub-stage, special 

 forms of diaphragms, sub-stage con- 

 densers, their uses and advantages, 

 should all be dwelt upon, as well as a 

 host of other things never mentioned, 

 and in respect to which a student re- 

 mains ignorant until he has had a 

 tenth-rate foreign instrument thrust 

 upon him at " sixty per cent, off list." 

 Even then he is ignorant of what he 

 has missed in not having purchased 

 a good American stand. 



Our instructor having finished his 



description of the microscope, then 

 shows us a stage-micrometer and its 

 uses, and how to determine the mag- 

 nifying power of the different combi- 

 nations. I would suggest that the 

 concurrent use of the eye-piece mi- 

 crometer would be of value, and this 

 has been introduced into one of the 

 laboratories. Next, we are taught 

 the use of the camera lucida ; but 

 invariably the cameras used are 

 so constructed as to necessitate the 

 horizontal position of the microscope 

 when in use. This is a grand mis- 

 take. Many times one feels the ne- 

 cessity of a camera lucida, when to 

 change the position of the stand is to 

 lose the object under observation. 

 There are more modern affairs than 

 these, and why not give the student 

 the advantage of using them ? The 

 Messrs. Beck make a camera that can 

 be used out of the horizontal, but, of 

 course, the best of them all is by 

 Zeiss. The expense may be an ob- 

 jection, but not an insuperable one 

 in most cases. The laboratories 

 should provide the students with the 

 best, and most approved, apparatus, 

 for it is by the use of labor-saving 

 apparatus that the busy practitioner 

 is enabled to carry on his pathologi- 

 cal investigations. 



Having mastered these subjects, 

 and learned how to polish up the 

 barrel of our microscope, we are con- 

 sidered fit to begin the study of his- 

 tology. Before following this step, I 

 will make a suggestion : Would it not 

 be well for us to know more about 

 the manipulation of lenses. It is true 

 we have become acquainted with our 

 dry }( or \, and that almost every- 

 thing we will investigate is demon- 

 strable by means of these powers. 

 But there are some structures that 

 are not satisfactorily shown, and for 

 these we want greater resolving pow- 

 er and higher magnification ; and as 

 these higher powers are usually made 

 immersion with collar-adjustment, 

 the manipulation of this kind of 

 objectives should be practiced. 

 The homogeneous-immersion systems 



