ON CONSTRUCTING STANDS OF MICROSCOPES. 155 



possess a grain of experience on the subject under deli- 

 beration. 



All these considerations have had so much weight 

 with me, that I have more than once determined never 

 to meddle with the stands and apparatus of microscopes 

 at all, but leave men to settle them according to their 

 own fancies ; but my friends have told me, that I have 

 as good a right to consider an ounce of my own wit equal 

 to a ton of my neighbour's as other men have, and 

 that I ought to make the experiment, of giving a con- 

 struction of my own, whether it may be adopted or not. 

 I shall therefore state my own views on the subject, and 

 for every particular structure recommended, shall give 

 a reason which every man may, of course, either admit 

 or disprove, together with the construction deduced 

 from it. First, then, I say that the stage should be mo- 

 tionless, and that the optical part only should possess the 

 requisite power of traversing and adjustment ; because 

 living objects are much more quiet when allowed to 

 remain at rest, and therefore more easily observed : if 

 some one who has been less plagued by them than I 

 have, chooses to say that it makes no difference whether 

 they are moved about or not, I will give up the point ; 

 but still insist on the propriety of making the instrument 

 perform all its adjustments as perfectly without the stage as 

 with it, for then we may remove the stage altogether if 

 we please, and substitute any thing we think proper in 

 its place, and all will go on as before. This arrange- 



