400 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Wenham's Universal Inclining and Rotating Microscope.— 



" Another F.R.M.S." suggests* that there was one point in connection 

 with this Microscope which has been omitted, and claims that the 

 merit of the principle of construction is due to Dr. Edmunds, on the 

 following grounds : — 



" On November 10, 1880, at the Koyal Microscopical Society, 

 Dr. W. B. Carpenter exhibited and fully described a small rough 

 stand made for students' purposes by Mr. George Wale, and the record 

 of the proceedings of that meeting will be found in the Journal of 

 the Society for 1880, p. 1087. From that published record I extract 

 the following paragraph :— 



' Dr. Edmunds pointed out that this most useful microscope-stand 

 would be vastly improved if only the arc upon which the body turns 

 were so constructed that the centre of the circle of which the arc 

 forms part were made to coincide in position with the centre of the 

 stage. The object would then undergo no movement of translation, 

 either in rotating the stage or in turning the optical tube from the 

 vertical to the horizontal In rotating the stage, the object would 

 turn upon the optic axis; in moving the tube into various degrees 

 of obliquity from 0'^ to 90", the object would rotate upon its 

 liorizontal axis. The result would be that, with a thin stage and 

 a hemispherical lens in immersion contact with the under surface 

 of the slide, all the complicated swinging substages and other 

 contrivances now upon the table might be swept away, and every 

 angle of illumination could be got by merely inclining the body 

 of the Microscope upon its sustaining arc. There would only be 

 needed a lamp on a level with the object, with a condenser at its 

 focal distance standing upon the table in line between the lamp and 

 the object.' " 



The writer, in some criticisms of the design, insists that with the 

 object centered upon a revolving stage and one movement in altitude, 

 all possible illuminations are at command. 



Mr. Wenham subsequently writes f denying that he had previ- 

 ously read Dr. Edmunds' remarks above quoted, and stating that his 

 own Microscope was designed before their date. 



A similar disclaimer is made | by Mr. J. M. Moss, the designer of 

 the Microscope described in this Journal, i. (1881) p. 516. 



Briicke Lens. — Mr. A. Smith points out, with reference to our 

 description of this lens, ante, p. 101, that it is also described in 

 Eutherford's ' Outlines of Practical Histology,' 1876, p. 36, and 

 figured, with a holder, on p. 38.§ Our sectional woodcut. Fig. 14, 

 was unfortunately x-eversed by the printer, 



Bausch and Lomb Handy Dissecting Microscope. — This instru- 

 ment (Fig. 66) made by the Bausch and Lomb Optical Company, 

 for use in mounting Foraminifera or other objects which have to be 



* Engl. Mech., xxxv. (1882) p. 217. 

 t Ibid., pp. 237 and 282. J Ibid. 



§ It is al.so referred to by Dr. Carpenter, ' Tiie Microscope and its Revela- 

 tions,' 1S81, pp. r)8-9. 



