52 



THE america:n monthly 



[March, 



the history of the case as known 

 should be given with the preparation. 

 After such a course, when the student 

 comes to the work of every-day Hfe in 

 the routine of practical medicine, he 

 finds laid a solid basis upon which 

 to extend his future observations. 



All physicians cannot be special- 

 ists with the microscope, but all 

 should know the pathological differ- 

 ence between fatty degeneration and 

 amyloid degeneration when they see it. 

 Yet how many do ? I venture not ten 

 per cent, of them, and so long as you 

 insist upon surrounding the student 

 with so complicated an outfit as the 

 writer above mentioned would sug- 

 gest, so long will we continue to turn 

 out physicians from our medical 

 schools ignorant of the essential prin- 

 ciples of histology and pathology. I 

 well remember while I was a student 

 in the Pathological Institute in Berlin, 

 that the great endeavor of Virchow 

 was always to simplify things as much 

 as possible ; and had I been obliged 

 to buy my whole outfit, the cost, in- 

 cluding my microscope, would not 

 have exceeded seventy-five dollars. 

 In the future I may have more to say 

 upon this subject. 



H. Hatch, M. D. 



QUINCY, Ills. 



EDITORIAL. 



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 o 



Ruled Bands. — Some gentlemen 

 in Elmira have been amusing them- 

 selves by resolving ruled plates. 

 Drs. Gleason and Up de Graff have 

 resolved the eighteenth band of 

 Fasoldt's plate, which is said to have 

 1 20,000 lines to the inch. Dr. Gleason 

 has stated this so positively that we 

 cannot doubt the resolution of that 

 band, but before we are convinced 

 that lines as close as 120,000 to the 

 inch have been resolved, we must 

 have satisfactory proof that the lines 

 of that band are ruled so close as 

 that. Such proof can be given by 

 photography, and when Dr. Gleason 

 returns from Florida, where he has 

 gone to shoot alligators, we hope he 

 will have the band photographed and 

 the lines counted. 



We shall discuss the subject of re- 

 solution more fully next month, 

 and endeavor to indicate the value of 

 ruled plates as tests for objectives. 

 Just now we wish to ask some ques- 

 tions in regard to Mr. Fasoldt's an- 

 nouncement that he can rule, and has 

 ruled, a band having 1,000,000 lines 

 to the inch. It seems that Mr. Fa- 

 soldt sets his machine to rule lines in 

 that proportion, and then asserts that 

 the lines are ruled because they show 

 the diffraction spectra. The question 

 we wish to put to Mr. Fasoldt, and 

 to the scientific world, is this : Are 

 those spectra any proof of the pre- 

 sence of separate lines ? 



We would like Mr. Fasoldt to in- 

 form us how fine the individual lines 

 of his wonderful plate are ? If the 

 plate has 1,000,000 lines to the inch, 

 the individual lines cannot be broader 

 than half a millionth of an inch ! 

 Can such fine lines be ruled ? Then 

 it is a question in mechanics, whether 

 a tool can be made so steady that it 

 can draw a line without a tremor of 



