ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 493 



(6) Miscellaneous. 



Relations between Geology and the Mineralogical Sciences.* — Prof. 

 J. W. Judd in his annivei-sary address to the Geological Society made the 

 followiBg remarks on the Microscope. 



" How is it, we may profitably ask, that the biological sciences have made 

 such prodigious advances, while the mineralogical ones have lagged so far 

 behind ? We must ascribe the result, I believe, to two causes :— 



In the first place, improvements in the construction of the Microscope, 

 and more especially the perfecting of methods of study by means of thin 

 sections, have immeasurably enlarged the biologist's field of observation ; 

 histology and the cell-theory, embryology with all its suggestiveness, and 

 many important branches of physiological research, must have languished, 

 if, indeed, they ever saw the light, but for the aid afforded by the 

 microscopical methods of inquiry. 



In the second place, the growth of geological and palaBontological 

 knowledge has been the leading factor in that profound revolution in biolo- 

 gical ideas which, sweeping before it the superstition of fixity of species, 

 has endowed this branch of natural science with the transforming concep- 

 tion of evolution. 



Now these two causes, which have done so much for biology, are 

 already working out the regeneration of mineralogy ; and I doubt not that 

 the fruitn brought forth by the latter science will be equally satisfactory 

 with those of the former. 



The application of the Microscope to the study of minerals has proved 

 less easy than in the case of animal and vegetable structures. . . . 



The greatest step in advance in connection with the microscopic study 

 of rocks was undoubtedly made, however, when it was shown that trans- 

 parent sections of minerals, rocks, and fossils can be prepared, comparable 

 to those so constantly employed by biologists in their researches. . . . 



I believe that what ge dogy has already done for biology she is now 

 accomplishing for mineralogy ; it may, indeed, be instructive to point out 

 how, in every one of its departments, the employment of microscopic 

 methods and the suggestion of new lines of thought are causing mineralogy 

 to develope in just the same directions as biology has already taken before 

 her. In this way we may perhaps best convince ourselves that mineralogy 

 is once more asserting her position in the family of the natural sciences." 



The Microscope in the Legal Profession.f — Under this heading the 

 editors of ' The Microscope ' write as follows : — 



" The importance and usefulness of this great instrument grows with 

 every year. Its valuable service is by no means restricted to the medical 

 profession, whose especial favourite it is. It has interested itself in the 

 varied fields of manufacture, especially in pharmacy and chemistrj^ where 

 it has become as indispensable an article of furniture as the mortar and 

 pestle to the apothecary ; but its orbit has widened and continues to 

 widen with almost every new moon. 



" It is, perhaps, not generally known how very useful it has of late years 

 become in the legal profession. A few years ago, when a question arose 

 as to the authenticity of signatures, or suspected alterations in a written 

 instrument (such as deeds, wills or promissory notes), the only means the 

 court and jury had to settle the vexed question was to call in men reputed 

 to be ' experts ' in the matter of handwriting, such as bookkeepers, 

 paying-tellers in banks, scriveners and copyists, and take their opinions 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, xlii. (1887), Proceedings, pp. GO-2. 

 t The Microscope, vii. (1S87) pp. 81-2. 



