COLLECTION OP OBJECTS. 243 



covered, it is better to attach the label to the glass, and to punch 

 a hole out of the colored paper, sufficiently large to show the 

 name, in the part corresponding to it ; in this manner the label 

 is prevented from falling oft", which it frequently does when 

 attached to the glass without protection, or to the outside of the 

 paper cover. When objects are mounted in fluid, either with or 

 without cells, paper coverings to the slides had better be dis- 

 pensed with ; and besides the name of the object, it is desirable 

 to inscribe on the glass that of the fluid in which it is mounted. 

 For the preservation of objects, the pasteboard boxes now made 

 at a very reasonable cost, with wooden racks, to contain 6, 12, 

 or 24 slides, will be found extremely useful. In these, however, 

 the slides must always stand upon their edges ; a position which, 

 besides interfering with that ready view of them which is re- 

 quired for the immediate selection of any particular specimen, is 

 unfavorable to the continued soundness of preparations mounted 

 in fluid. Although such boxes are most useful, indeed almost 

 indispensable, to the Microscopist, for holding slides which he 

 desires (for whatever purpose) to keep for a while constantly at 

 hand, yet his regularly classified series is much more conve- 

 niently stored in a Cabinet containing numerous very shallow 

 drawers, in which they lie flat and exposed to view. Such 

 cabinets are now prepared for sale under the direction of our 

 principal Opticians, with all the improvements that experience 

 has suggested. In order to prevent the warping of the thin 

 wood of which, the bottoms of the drawers are usually made, 

 whereby their sliding action is obstructed, it has been found ad- 

 vantageous to substitute strained canvas or papier mache. Again, 

 in order to antagonize the disposition of the slides to slip one 

 over another in the opening or shutting of the drawers, it has 

 been found preferable to arrange them in such a manner, that 

 they lie with their ends (instead of their long sides) towards the 

 front of the drawer, and to interpose a cross-strip of wood, lying 

 parallel to the front of the drawer, between each row. It is very 

 convenient, moreover, for the front of the drawer to be furnished 

 with a little tablet of porcelain, on which the name of the group 

 of objects it may contain can be written in pencil, so as to be 

 readily rubbed out ; or a small frame may be attached to it, into 

 which a slip of card may be inserted for the same purpose. 



« 



Section 3. Collection of Objects. 



142. A large proportion of the objects with which the Micro- 

 scopist is concerned, are derived from the minute parts of those 

 larger organisms, whether Vegetable or Animal, the collection 

 of which does not require any other methods than those pursued 

 by the ordinary Naturalist. With regard to such, therefore, no 

 special directions are required. But there are several most in- 

 teresting and important groups, both of Plants and Animals, 



