1894.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 125 



Reflected Light. — It is well known that light reflected from 

 white clouds is one of the very best for illuminating the mi- 

 croscope. Mr. Geo. Rust writes us that when white clouds are 

 wanting, he moistens the finger with watch-oil and spreads an 

 even but very thin coat over the face of the mirror which pro 

 duces much the same results. 



MEDICAL MICROSCOPY. 



Too Busy to Use a Microscope. — A late lec'urer at a med- 

 ical college on '• medical science as now enlightened by micro- 

 scopic research" was told by a confrere : " We are so busy that 

 we have no time to go into sucii things." 



In other words, we practice in the dark and without the l)est 

 results, simply because our time is fully occupied. We make 

 our profession profitable for ourselves if not for our patients. 



To be sure, they think ihey have the services of those fully u]) 

 to, if not above the average physician. Some patients think we 

 are the best of our cult. At any rate the ph\'sical signs of busi- 

 ness comply with the ethical standards of professional success, 

 but we have not time for the microscope. If once in a year or 

 two, we want urine examined, we send specimens to the apothe- 

 cary or some medical expert who never sees the c ise, making a 

 laboratory and not a clinical investigation. 



So it is that your expectations are not to be realized. We are 

 too busy to come up to this standard. 



My friends look out! Now th^t the use of the microscope in 

 disease is taught to first year students in such colleges as Mass. 

 Institute of Techology under the head of biology, the time is 

 coming that such graduates will mould public opinion so that 

 you will have to use the microscope clinically. Sick people 

 may get an idea that the physician is co cure if possible, your 

 patients may prefer cure than death because you are too busy 

 to properly study their cases. The sick are entitled to the bene- 

 fits of all means of clinical knowledge and those wlio keep their 

 patients from these benefits are, to put it mildly, not honoring 

 their prolession as they should. 



We do not claim too much for microscopy but it is not right 

 to wholl}' ignore the grand clinical work the microscope is now 

 doing for the sick. Many are alive to-day who Initfor the clin- 



