3G SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



ings — altliougli the lectures and readings were necessary 

 preparations for the full benefit of such study. But thoughts 

 of '• benefit" are after- thoughts ; — the real incentive to work 

 is passionate fondness for the work itself; and I know 

 nothing in the shape of intellectual activity which I would 

 exchange for a long day with the Microscope. This feeling 

 is beautifully indicated by M. Quatrefages, in that page of 

 his Souvenirs d'un Naturaliste in which he describes his 

 residence on the little archipelago of Chaussey, where none 

 lived besides himself and a few fishermen. At night, when 

 the songs and the disputes of the fishermen gradually lapsed 

 into silence, and nothing could be heard but the murmurs of 

 the sea, he sat down at his square deal table, covered Avith the 

 produce of his day's hunt. There he sat, before a IMicro- 

 scope which opened to him the world of the infinitely minute, 

 his pencil sketching the novel forms, his pen hastily tracing 

 the result of his observations. And thus the night advanced, 

 till, with fingers so benumbed that he could no longer hold 

 the scalpel, he crept into his bed as the fishermen were leav- 

 ing theirs. Tlie passage is too long to quote, but the reader 

 can seek it in the charming book itself, the work of a 

 naturalist — which means, an enthusiast. 



Of late years the Microscope has not only become indis- 

 pensable to the scientific student, but a delight to the 

 amateur. Nevertheless certain popular errors still deter 

 many from its employment ; and now that it is no longer 

 the costly instrument it used to be, those errors should be 

 combated. A very general belief of its " injuring the eyes," 

 will be found even among microscopists. On evidence the 



