1899J MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. ^0^ 



descriptiob carefully and substantially made, have been 

 submitted for the inspection of the Club during the year: 

 for example, the "Fram" microscope of Messrs. Watson, 

 the "Scientific-Student" microscope of Messrs. Beck ,and 

 some others. But I have occasionally observed, especi- 

 ally of late years, a tendency to increase both the com- 

 plexity and the costliness of these instruments, and this 

 to such a degree as to render them unsuitable for the pur- 

 pose for which they were designed, and which alone they 

 are fitted to serve — namely, that of dissecting, or labora- 

 tory working instruments. I have met with stands, not 

 exceeding ten inches in height, and fitted with binocular 

 bodies, triple or even quadruple nosepieces, elaborate me- 

 chanical stages, swinging so-called "turn-out" substages 

 intended to carry an achromatic or other condenser, para- 

 boloid, spot lens, polariscope, and a host of other appa- 

 ratus such as would be suitable only for a full-sized, com- 

 plete stand of the English model. I confess that when I 

 see small stands of this class encumbered with milled 

 heads and other projections, both above and below the 

 stage, and overweighted with complicated and costly ac- 

 cessories, I am at a loss to understand how 'they can be 

 used to any good effect by the average student. It cannot, 

 therefore, be too strongly asserted that instruments of 

 the kind I have now been considering are, in their nature, 

 working or mounting instruments only, and that any at- 

 tempt to raise them to a higher position, by the addition 

 of elaborate mechanical appliances, can only result in 

 failure and disappointment. 



But there is another type of instrument, seldom met 

 with now, but which in my earley days used to be called 

 the Student's microscope, and, in my opinion, much more 

 appropriately. The stands referred to were of full Eng- 

 lish size, and of first-class material and workmanship. 

 They were supplied by their makers in a plain, elemen- 

 tary form ; being fitted, in the first instance, with noth- 



