O METHODS OF MICROSCOPICAL RESEARCH. 



There is a great deal of truth in the statement 

 that true art is the outcome of genius, but that does 

 not in any way affect microscopical drawing ; it 

 will be found that patience and practice are suffi- 

 cient to enable the student to overcome every 

 obstacle, and to achieve the most satisfactory results 

 in this department of art. 



But whilst admitting the perfection to which 

 many great artists in microscopical drawing have 

 attained, and the great assistance to microscopical 

 research afforded by the works of those who, in 

 addition to correctness of vision and observation, 

 possess an educated eye and a hand capable of 

 drawing exactly what they see, give us the benefit 

 of exquisite colouring in addition to correctness of 

 outline and detail, who can sufficiently estimate the 

 incalculable advantages bestowed upon microscopical 

 science by micro-photography, which producing 

 pictures absolutely faultless and free from such 

 slight defects as are inseparable from drawings 

 which, being dependent for their production upon 

 human eyes, brain and nerves, must inevitably be 

 liable to human imperfections, whilst a micro-photo- 

 graph from the hands of a skilled observer and 

 photographer is as inevitably free from all errors 

 and defects, and provides for us an actual and per- 

 fect enlargement in all its features and details 

 colour alone excepted of the image focussed upon 

 the plate ? Micro-photography has indeed proved a 

 boon to the microscopist, and the improvements 

 which have been made and are daily being intro- 

 duced in both apparatus and processes entitle us to 

 believe that valuable and exquisite as are the 

 pictures now produced by photography, the future 



