18971 MICKOSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 289 



Neither is it enougli for him to recognise an object in 

 an isohxted condition and know its form and construction : 

 he must know as well what relation it sustains to other 

 objects about it. This calls for the wise exercise of the 

 comparative faculty, the second essential for the physi- 

 cian microscopist ; indeed, these two elements may be 

 called his eyes. With these faculties undeveloped, 

 untrained, he may as well be a blind microscopist. What 

 is true of normal vision is pre-eminently true of aided 

 vision, which aid the microscope is, but it jjroduces 

 changes also in the relative conditions of objects, and of 

 such changes the mind must take cognisance ; it is an 

 element too often overlooked. In short, the revelations 

 of the microscope become the alphabet and the system- 

 atic arrangement of these revelations in the human mind 

 forms its language, a language that requires study to 

 comprehend ; a language also that needs much further 

 development and amplification. Physicians, as a rule, 

 can be novices only in microscopical science, following 

 where others lead ; they stand at your feet, at the feet of 

 the microscopists of the world, in the relation of pupil to 

 teacher, asking for more light to illuminate the intrica- 

 cies of human existence. 



Give to them tliis light ; save for them the microscope 

 with all of its powers and possibilities which are vast ; 

 prevent it by your efforts from relapsing into a state of 

 "innocuous desuetude." 



Notes on Technique. 



By PIERRE A. FISH, D. Sc, 



CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N. Y. 



In many of the modern articles, the methods by which 

 certain pathological structures are demonstrated, if men- 

 tioned at all, are frequently so meager in the description 

 of important details as to be practically useless to many 



