1884.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



39 



reached ; so that Mr. Bulloch acceded 

 "^ very promptly to my request that he 

 should make up the nose-piece he had 

 thought of no importance three years 

 before, and he now publishes it as the 

 most perfect means yet devised of secur- 

 ing the objective to the tube, and of 

 rapidly interchanging one objective for 

 another. I shall hope yet to be assured 

 that Mr. Bulloch's failure to credit me with 

 the invention was an oversight, and, in 

 that hope, will say no more about it at 

 present. Albert McCalla. 



Fairfield, Iowa, Dec. 31st, 1883. 



o 



Cleaning Slides and Covers. 



To THE Editor. — I would like to ask, 

 through the colums of your Journal, for 

 a simple and efficient method of cleaning 

 off old balsam-mounted slides and covers. 

 No doubt some of your subscribers can 

 furnish the desired information, and it 

 will be as useful, perhaps, to many of 

 your readers as to the writer. G. T. 



[The question is submitted to the read- 

 ers of the Journal who can doubtless 

 contribute useful hints for cleaning slides. 

 Our correspondent might try, meanwhile, 

 strong sulphuric acid containing some 

 crystals of potassic bichromate, allowing 

 the slides to remain several days in the 

 liquid. — Ed.] 



MICROSC OPICAL SOCIETIES. 



The Lehigh Valley Microscopical 

 Society of Easton, Pa., held an exhibition 

 at the rooms of the Y. M. C. A. of that 

 place on the evening of November ist. 

 Dr. Amos Seip, the president, delivered a 

 short address, and a large number of fine 

 objects were shown by the members. We 

 make the following extracts from Dr. 

 Seip's address : — 



"The object of this meeting to-night is 

 to afford our friends and all lovers of 

 microscopy an opportunity to examine 

 the display of the various kinds of micro- 

 scopes, and to give an exhibition of ob- 

 jects both natural and prepared, thereby 

 showing more of the wonderful power of 

 the instrument, and to afford an evening 

 of enjoyment by the exhibition of some 

 of the finer objects in nature and art, 

 which can only be seen by its use. We 

 hope also to give an impetus to the study 

 of our favorite science, and possibly de- 

 velop sufficient interest in the community 

 that may ultimately lead to more practical 

 results. The value of the microscope in 

 the arts and sciences is fully acknowl- 



edged and appreciated, but as a factor in 

 education in the school-room and fam- 

 ily it is comparatively unknown. The 

 use of a microscope in the home circle 

 would not only afford a most interesting 

 study and much enjoyment, but would 

 go far in moulding character and devel- 

 oping the mind. ******* 



" We sometimes hear it sneeringly stated 

 that the microscope is overrated ; that the 

 benefits resulting from its use by the phy- 

 sicians are exaggerated and not founded 

 in fact. Why, if it were possible for me 

 to enumerate but a tithe of its capabil- 

 ities and of the advantages, nay, the ne- 

 cessities, of its almost daily use by the 

 physician, you would be astonished ; time 

 would fail. I dare scarcely allude to the 

 subject. To the physician the microscope 

 is from the very first a necessity for his 

 instruction. In pursuing his investiga- 

 tions it gradually becomes a delight and 

 attraction which captivates its employer 

 and leads him on in the boundless fields of 

 science which it unfolds, and illuminates 

 with a beauty of design and structure of 

 which no description can give an adequate 

 idea, and leads him irresistibly on and 

 upward through nature to nature's God. 



"A physician must either be himself a 

 microscopist, or he must almost daily 

 make use of one for the necessary infor- 

 mation to practise his profession correctly, 

 conscientiously, and successfully. 



" By means of this instrument, and by it 

 alone, we can observe the wonderful pro- 

 cess of the development of the body from 

 a simple cell. With it and the informa- 

 tion it gives we can now recognize and 

 cure diseases that are local and parasitic, 

 that were long held to be constitutional. 

 By it we examine the various secretions 

 and excretions of the body and at once 

 determine the nature of the disease, 

 whether functional or structural. By it 

 the brilliant discoveries of Koch, Pasteur, 

 Tyndall, and others, were rendered pos- 

 sible, and which have covered them with 

 undying fame. 



" But a short time since the startling in- 

 telligence was flashed from Egypt that 

 Koch, the discoverer of the Bacillus tuber- 

 culosis, claims to have discovered the 

 cause of Asiatic cholera ; that he has 

 found it to be due to microscopic organi- 

 zations of a thread-like character, some- 

 what resembling the bacillus of consump- 

 tion. Should his observations be verified 

 it will add another to the triumphs of the 

 microscope in modern medicine. 



" And now, gentlemen of the Lehigh 

 Valley Microscopical Society, permit me to 



