COMMON OBJECTS WORTH EXAMINING. 293 



But although the reader may never be at a loss for 

 employment for his pocket-lens, he may at first feel 

 that his compound microscope will never afford him 

 either amusement or instruction. How glaring and 

 how laughable will such a mistake appear after six 

 months' use of the instrument! When recommending 

 a friend to purchase a microscope, he will speak of 

 that conclusion as an amusing episode in his life. Yet 

 the beginner, especially if alone, or if without a friend 

 to suggest, or an experienced microscopist to instruct, 

 must necessarily be somewhat at a loss as to how to 

 make a start, and I know of no remedy for this un- 

 pleasant feeling except to experiment. Take the first 

 small object that may be convenient, place it on a 

 glass slip, and examine it with a low-power objective; 

 add a drop of water, cover it with a thin-glass square, 

 and note the change in its appearance. But do not 

 imitate the man who returned his microscope to the 

 manufacturer because, as he said, it would not show 

 the crystals in sugar. After much questioning it was 

 discovered that he had placed a huge lump of loaf- 

 sugar on the stage, expecting that the crystals would 

 at once become conspicuous. And do not imitate the 

 man who put on his stage a piece of anthracite coal 

 direct from the bin, expecting it to reveal its vegetable 

 nature and its fern fragments or impressions without any 

 previous preparation. A lump of sugar or of coal is a 

 dark object when an attempt is made to throw light 

 through it by a microscope-mirror, yet both are beau- 

 tiful and interesting when viewed as opaque objects, 

 with the light reflected on them from the mirror 

 swung above the stage. To see the sugar crystals, 

 however or the structure of coal, d.emands some care- 



