Vlll PREFACE. 



lished at a price that renders them practically unattainable 

 by the great bulk of the public. They are careful and 

 beautiful contributions to the objects of science, but they 

 cannot adequately bring the value and charm of micro- 

 scopic studies home, so to speak, to the firesides of the 

 people. Day after day, new and interesting discoveries, 

 and amplifications of truth already discerned, have been 

 made, but they have been either sacrificed in serials, or, 

 more usually, devoted to the pages of class publications ; 

 and thus this most important and attractive study has 

 been, in a great measure, the province of the few only, 

 who have derived from i\ a rich store of enlightenment 

 and gratification : the many not having, however, parti- 

 cipated, to any great extent, in the instruction and enter- 

 tainment which always follow in the train of microscopical 

 studies. 1 



The manifold uses and advantages of the Microscope 

 crowd upon us in such profusion, that we can only attempt 

 to enumerate them in the briefest and most rapid manner 

 in these prefatory pages. 



It is not many years since this invaluable instrument 

 was regarded in the light of a costly toy ; it is now the 

 inseparable companion of the man of science. In the 

 medical world, its utility and necessity are fully appre- 

 ciated, even by those who formerly were slow to perceive 

 its benefits ; now, knowledge which could not be obtained 

 even by the minutest dissection is acquired readily by itv 

 assistance, which has become as essential to the anatomist 

 and pathologist as are the scalpel and bedside observation. 

 The smallest portion of a diseased structure, placed under 

 a Microscope, will tell more in one minute to the ex- 

 perienced eye, than could be ascertained by long examina- 



(1) At the time this work was written, scarcely a book of the kind had beer 

 published at a price within t>e reach of the working classes 



