32 AQUATIC MICROSCOPY FOR BEGINNERS. 



found so abundantly in almost all still water, where 

 they often form delicate green clouds, or thread-like 

 streamers adhering to other plants, dead leaves, or 

 waterlogged sticks, are almost sure to be transferred to 

 the slip in a heaped and tangled mass, which only 

 two needles with gently persuasive movements 

 can straighten out for microscopic study. If an 

 attempt is made to examine such a confused heap, the 

 thin cover cannot be forced to lie flat without crushing 

 the delicate specimen, and if the cover is tilted the 

 objective cannot be properly focused. 



To make these useful tools, with pliers thrust fine 

 needles head first into parlor-matches, after the phos- 

 phorous ends have been cut off. These round sticks 

 make handles convenient in length and pleasant to use. 

 It is well to have half a dozen or more of these needle- 

 bearing matches lying where they can be picked up 

 whenever wanted. If the student desires to dissect 

 insects, nothing can be so useful for cutting and tear- 

 ing minute parts, and for separating delicate tissues or 

 organs as fine needles. No knives have been made to 

 equal them for this purpose. 



The glass tube is the "dipping-tube." It is really 

 one of the most important little pieces of apparatus 

 that the microscopist can have on his table, if he in- 

 tends to study aquatic life. With it he can pick up 

 any small object that may be visible in the water, 

 transfer any selected matters to the slip, or make the 

 dip that is made by faith, with the assurance that al- 

 though the tube may seem to be filled with water only, 

 it will be pretty sure to have captured something in- 

 teresting, novel, or beautiful. He can . fill the tube 

 with water and allow it to escape in a miniature tor- 



