1892.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 125 



RECRE ATIV K MICROSCOPY. 



Microscopic Mounts of Minerals in Boxes. — The diffi- 

 culty of examining minerals with the microscope has heretofore 

 been very great. Various inventions have from time to time ap- 

 peared endeavoring to overcome the difficulties. If a fragment 

 or portion of a mineral is mounted upon the usual glass slide of 

 the microscopist, it is clumsy, requires too much room, and is not 

 protected easily by the cover-glass without making so deep a cell 

 that light cannot be thrown into it by the condenser in a manner 

 entirely satisfactory. 



Perhaps the best manner of mounting the delicate crystals is to 

 fix them in paper boxes, about one inch scjuare, the inside of each 

 little box being of black paper, like the dead color of the inner 

 surface of the tube of the microscope. No cover-glass is in the 

 way to refract or prevent the light from penetrating into the little 

 cavities of the specimen where the small acicular or tabular crys- 

 tals have formed and where they are protected from injury. 



As a still further protection the box may have a cover of a light 

 colored paper which fits perfectly ; and all be contained in cov- 

 ered paper tray-boxes, each tray containing thirty small mineral 

 boxes. One-and-a-half or a two-inch objective will l)e found the 

 most effective. If a good strong light is thrown upon the min- 

 eral there is nothing more beautiful. 



The following are a few of the boxed micro-minerals that can 

 be bought for 25 cents each : 



Analcite, adamite, azurite, apophyllite, anglesite, aurichalcite, 

 axinite, blende, braunite, brochantite, byssolite, biotite, bourno- 

 nite, calamine, chalcotrichite, conichalcite, copper (native), cup- 

 rite, clinoclasite, chalcophanite, celestite, descloisite, erythrite, 

 erinite, franklinite, fluorite, garnets, gold (crystals), gothite, 

 hematite, hydromagnesite, hematite and quartz, irridium, itacolu- 

 mite, jarosite, laurionite, lava, marcasite, malachite, muscovite, 

 mimetite, osmium, olivenite, onegite, platinum sand, pele's 

 hair, pyrite, petrified wood, pyroxene, polybasite, phillippsite, 

 quartz (crystals), rutile, silver (native), sulphur, stibnite, spinel, 

 stephanite, serpierite, smithsonite, scorodite, tyrolite, tenorite, 

 torbernite, ulexite, vanadinite, vesuvianite, variscite, wulfenite 

 (red), wulfenite (yellow), wavelite, zircons. 



Lycopodium. — To subdue one's aversion to taking pills, show 

 him what a beautiful object the adhering powder is when seen 

 under the microscope. Druggists use the club-moss or ground 

 pine spores to roll the pills in to prevent their adhering. One 

 can sometimes make some fine moimts out of the waste powder 

 of a pill-box. Blest be he who first invented pills. 



Arranged Diatoms. — These always aflbrd entertainment. 

 W. H. Pratt, of Taunton, Mass., has made some nice slides from 

 American diatoms. 



