264 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [November, 



Professor Fliickiger's assistant and a most excellent microscopist, 

 first called my attention to the book, and Professor Fliickiger 

 himself also heartily indorsed it. The cost of the book is a very 

 modest one, being only six francs ($1.25). This constitutes the 

 complete outfit of our pharmacist-microscopist, and it is plain 

 that, outside of the microscope, there is little necessary that a 

 pharmacist has not already in his laboratory. 



In regard to the staining agents, I shall speak more in detail 

 when I come to the subject of staining the prepared section. 

 Now let us begin our preparation of the section of a given dry 

 drug that comes up for examination, taking, for simplicity's sake, 

 a root or stem to begin with. We place our microscope on the 

 table before us, facing the source of light — usually a window — 

 and get the mirror at the proper angle to give us the best illumi- 

 nation. Our watch-glass is placed to the right of the instrument, 

 and some water poured into it from the wash-bottle. A small 

 piece of the drug, preferably a small, thin root, not more than an 

 inch in length, is then immersed in the water and allowed to re- 

 main there until it has become quite soft and well saturated with 

 liquid. While this is soaking, we take a good, sound cork, and 

 with oui' razor cut it in two through the centre along its longer 

 diameter, being careful to have both cut surfaces smooth. We 

 next take our saturated root and place it between the two pieces 

 of cork, so that it rests between the two flat surfaces of the latter. 

 The upper surface of one of these is lowered below the level of 

 the other, and the top of the root must protrude above the top of 

 the lower piece of cork and below that of the higher piece. It is 

 well to cut oft' a piece of the root with the razor, prior to cutting 

 sections therefrom, so as to have a fresh surface to cut from when 

 we are ready to begin operations. Having this freshly-cut sur- 

 face of the root just barely protruding above the surface of the 

 lower piece of cork, all being held together between the thumb 

 and first finger of the left hand, we take the razor in the right 

 hand, and, with the shearing motion, draw the razor across the 

 surface of the root. In this way cut about six or eight very thin 

 sections of the root, all of which will adhere to the razor. Next 

 remove these into the water in the watch-glass, and see if any of 

 them are thin enough for use. (They must be decidedly trans- 

 lucent, if not transparent, in order to be fit for use.) If none of 

 them are thin enough, cut some more until one thin enough is 

 obtained. We next place before us one of the already described 

 object-glasses, and from our wash-bottle drop a drop or two of 

 water upon its surface. With one of the mounted needles we 

 now place our best section or sections upon the drop of water, 

 and then place over this one of our cover-glasses, or cover-slips, 

 as they are generally termed. By slightly pressing upon the sur- 

 face of the cover-slips with our needle, we now attempt to re- 

 move as many as possible, if not ail, of the air bubbles that have 

 collected under the same. This can usually be done, especially 



