ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICEOSCOPY, ETC. 653 



known that lie and his pupils never care to tip their Microscopes ; and 

 another specification is made of the fact that the length of the tube has 

 not been determined solely with reference to the height of the ^table or 

 the chair which this rather exacting critic commonly employs ; at least 

 this is the inference I draw from his demand that tubes should never be 

 made longer than suits his convenience. 



Now, I presume you find it as difficult as I do to understand why all 

 supposed faults are laid at the doors of American manufacturers; for 

 surely all bad Microscopes are not American, even if all American 

 Microscopes are bad. But the unreasonable and sweeping denunciation 

 in which this somewhat self-opinionated iconoclast indulges is only 

 another illustration of the familiar phenomenon of blotting out all the 

 rest of the world by holding a comparatively small object close to one's 

 eye ; for here is an acknowledged expert in histology, who is so com- 

 pletely absorbed in his speciality as to be entirely oblivious to, or regard- 

 less of, the instrumental needs of all other branches of microscopy. In 

 common with others who have lately made public display of their 

 ignorance of the vastness and variety of microscopical research, he 

 would actually prescribe ' for one that uses the Microscope for real 

 work ' a single simple pattern which, as you may imagine, would be 

 pretty strictly limited to the requirements of his own restricted field of 

 investigation. Instruments which perhaps meet the demands of different 

 classes of observers are ' constructed with a view of entrapping in- 

 experienced purchasers.' 



Unfortunately, this sort of narrow opposition to the inevitable 

 elaboration of scientific implements is not a thing which decreases with 

 the general increase of knowledge. It has accompanied every step in 

 the development of the Microscope and its accessories, and I suppose it 

 will go right on in the future ; for I can hardly imagine a time when 

 some specialist will not think it praiseworthy to contemn ' the latest 

 improvements,' and take personal pride in pointing to the results of his 

 own labours accomplished by the use of only the simplest mechanical 

 aids. 



Within a short time we have heard learned sermons preached upon 

 the superiority of specimens prepared without the employment of 

 circular cover-glasses, and, of course, without the assistance of the turn- 

 table. It was admitted that they were not very attractive to the naked 

 eye ; but then there was ' no nonsense ' about them, they were intended 

 '/or use!' So, too, we have witnessed a later contest over the micro- 

 tome. What earnest homilies we have listened to upon the superlative 

 excellence of the German method of free-hand section-cutting, and how 

 positively we have been assured that all mechanical section- cutters were 

 only delusions and snares. I have to admit that some of the later 

 developments of this accessory are rather formidable-looking engines 

 which seem capable almost of cutting timber for commercial purposes ; 

 but I notice that the gentleman who denounces all American Microscopes 

 as being too complicated, is himself the inventor of one of those elaborate 

 slicing machines. Yet the automatic microtome plainly has come to 

 stay, so have the mechanical stage, the swinging substage, and many 

 other contrivances over which we have seen battle waged. 



Shall we ever forget the terrific struggle with which the homogeneous- 

 immersion lens was obliged to win its way to a footing in the micro- 

 scopical world ? Men of no small importance blocked the road, not 



