20 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Jan., 



his skull and face rrushed with a mining hammer, and 

 the circumstances (by a foot-print) showed that the 

 lower part of the pants' leg, where stains were found, 

 had been placed near to, or against, the face of the de- 

 ceased, so that it is possible that the stain was mixed 

 with the saliva or stomach secretions. Other portions 

 of the murdered man's blood were not examined under 

 the microscope, and the discovery of the sarcin^e was made 

 accidentally and only in the blood stains on the pants of 

 the accused. 



The writer is not aware of the sarciujp having been 

 previously discovered in this manner and only reports 

 it as of interest in a medico-legal way. 



On the Development of the Continental Form of Microscope 



Stand. 



Bv J. B. NIAvS, M. 1). 

 l.ONDON. 



The tirst point of interest to note about the Conti- 

 nental stand is that it has maintained its form without 

 substantial alterations for nearly lifty years — a proof, in 

 general, that a design has been at the outset the crea- 

 tion of a practical man ; and yet this stand presents 

 several features which are open to criticism, nnd are in 

 fact unfavorably criticized if taken as representing an 

 optician's idea of what is suitable for a microsco])e : sd 

 that it became necessary to investigate the reasons for 

 the steady preference shown for this stand on the Con- 

 tinent, in spite of such defects ; and it soon appeared to 

 me that they could only be explained as limitations in- 

 troduced into the design at tlie bidding of some particu- 

 lar worker, such restrictions being submitted to by the 

 optician, so that the stand may be regarded as one in 

 which certain features desirable from the purely optical 

 point of view have been delibtn-ntely su}>pressed in order 



