MISCELLANEOUS HINTS. 485 



inches by one, or three inches by one-and-a-half; the former 

 is most commonly used. Any number of these may be cut of 

 the required dimensions by the board and ruler described at 

 page 262. Objects mounted on slides are often required to 

 be carried about; for this purpose small boxes are used, the 

 sides of which are provided with strips of wood, termed racks, 

 having a series of grooves cut in them, at equal distances 

 apart, to receive the ends of the slides; when the slides are 

 placed in the grooves, they may be kept either in a horizontal 

 or in a vertical position; some persons prefer the former, 

 others the latter method. Boxes capable of containing one or 

 two dozen objects can very well be carried in the pocket 

 without injury, provided the cover be well padded and pressed 

 firmly against the sides of the slides; others, made in the 

 shape of books, and fitted up with racks, look very neat when 

 arranged on shelves; the objects contained in them should be 

 kept in the horizontal position, which can be readily done by 

 having the box made of suflScient breadth to contain one or 

 two slides when placed horizontally. The chief inconvenience 

 in this mode of arrangement is the difiiculty of finding any 

 required object quickly, hence it wiU be found in practice, 

 where stowage-room is not of much consequence, that the 

 plan of keeping them in drawers perfectly fiat will be by far 

 the most advantageous; some persons prefer having the drawers 

 divided into compartments, each one of which is only capable 

 of holding a single slide; this, besides being an expensive plan, 

 is not always necessary; if the cabinet be large, and not often 

 moved, the divisions may be dispensed with; the author has 

 kept for years a collection of anatomical preparations in 

 shallow drawers, each being capable of holding nearly one 

 hundred slides; no compartment of any kind is employed, and 

 in no single instance has any injtiry befallen the specimens. 

 Cabinets are now furnished by our principal opticians and 

 preparers of objects, to hold any given number of slides, of 

 three inches by one. A cabinet of twenty-four drawers, each 

 drawer being 12^ inches by 9^ inside measure, will hold 

 upwards of eight hundred and fifty slides in three rows of 

 twelve in a row ; or twenty-four drawers of the same dimen- 



