72 A HALF-HOUR WITH THE MICROSCOPE IN-DOORS. 



The structure of the skin, and other organs of 

 the body, are very interesting subjects for micro- 

 scopical investigation ; and volumes have been 

 written upon their diversified details. The struc- 

 ture of voluntary and involuntary muscular tissue 

 may be easily examined, especially the former, by 

 taking a portion of the flesh of any animal usually 

 eaten as food. The striated fibrillse of voluntary 

 muscle may be best seen in flesh cooked as food. 

 A muscle consists of bundles of fibres, and each of 

 these fibres consists of several fibrillse lying close 

 together. Each of these fibrils is seen to be 

 crossed with lines (Fig. 223, PI. 8), which indicate 

 the point of union of the string of cells which form 

 the ultimate parts of the muscular tissue. 



We must now, however, draw our last half-hour 

 to a close. All we have attempted has been in the 

 way of introduction. We have only described those 

 things which are most easily obtained, and we have 

 sought rather to create a desire for further know- 

 ledge, than to impart an exhaustive amount of 

 information on any one subject. 



Those who have properly apprehended our re- 

 marks will see that there is not a distinct science 

 of microscopic objects, but that these objects belong 

 to various departments of science, whose great facts 

 and principles must be studied from works devoted 

 to them. The Microscope is in fact an instrument 

 to assist the eyes in the investigation of the facts 

 of structure and function, wherever they may occur 

 in the great field of nature ; and that inquirer 

 must have a very limited view of the nature of 

 science, who supposes either that the Microscope is 

 the only instrument of research, or that any in- 

 vestigation, where its aid reveals new facts, can be 

 successfully carried on without it. 



