1892.] MICROSCOriCAL JOURNAL. 95 



A New Frame for the Pocket Microscope. 



By Prof. L. E. SAYRE, 



LAWRENCE, KANS. 



A simple microscope, or pocket lens, as it is often and prefer- 

 ably called, is indispensable to every one who has a taste for the 

 study of nature, not only because of its special quality of magnifi- 

 cation as compared with the compound microscope, but because 

 it is always ready tor the examination of anything picked up by 

 the roadside, in the fields, or in the woods. It has always seemed 

 to me, however, that small and useful as it is, it does not entirely 

 fill the requirements of the naturalist in his field-work, because it 

 is not mounted in the most suitable frame for examining small 

 flowers or parts of flowers. This is especially perceptible when 

 one endeavors to hold in one hand a pocket lens and the object, 

 while with the other hand he tries to dissect the object. The 

 smaller the object the more difficult this becomes. 



I have endeavored to overcome this by the device herewith pre- 

 sented. It consists of a long handle, at one end of which is hinged 

 a stem which can move freely from the socket above a^ a knife- 

 blade does in its handle. At the extremity of this stem there is 

 inserted a ball-and-socket joint, which is surmounted by a second 

 smaller stem, and this is surmounted by the microscope. It will 

 be perceived from this construction that the magnifving lenses have 

 full play, and can be placed in any position w^hile it is being held 

 firmly by the hand. Furthermore, while it is thus being held in 

 any position desired, the thumb and index finger of the same hand 

 are left almost perfectly free to hold any object, however minute. 

 At the same time the other hand is left entirely free to operate with 

 dissecting needles or with any instruments necessary for the pur- 

 pose. 



The claim for a pirtent is as follows : The combination in a 

 simple dissecting microscope of a grqoved hand-piece, a, with an 

 arm c, connected with said hand-piece by a hinge joint, 6. and 



