84 the president's address. 



Still further : Judicial investigation into crime has been assisted 

 by the microscope. It is stated as the result of the most careful 

 and oft repeated examinations, that in every kind of animal the 

 blood contains globules which constitute its colouring matter, differ- 

 ing in size from those of every other, and as a consequence that 

 human blood can be distinguished accurately and certainly when ex- 

 amined through this instrument. By this mode a hiatus in evidence 

 may be filled up, for the want of which a criminal might have es- 

 caped ; or, on the other hand, circumstances apparently of great sus- 

 picion may be satisfactorily rebutted, and an unjustly accused indi- 

 vidual may be saved. 



I cannot refrain from recalling to you one among many instances 

 of the discoveries of criminals effected through the aid of the mi- 

 croscope, in illustration of what I have said- 



A box containing money had been stolen on one of the Railways 

 in Prussia, and, after being emptied of its contents, was filled with 

 sand and replaced on the car. The Police were at fault ; the land 

 round most of the stations in the north of Prussia is sandy, and the 

 contents of the box seemed to afford them no clue to the place 

 where the exchange had been made. 



Professor Ehrenberg was applied to, and having procured samples 

 of the sand along the line of the Eailway, he, with the aid of the 

 microscope, examined them, and also compared them with the sand 

 in the box. The powerful instrument he used enabled him at once 

 to discover the characteristic variations in the mineralogical compo- 

 sition and crystallization of the various specimens of disintegrated 

 rock from the different localities. The station from whence the 

 sand in the box had come was thus ascertained, and the conviction 

 of the thief was the immediate consequence. 



To the same professor is also due the application of the micro- 

 scope for the detection of a singular literary forgery. A pretended 

 palimpsest, purporting to be a history of some of the ancient Kings 

 of Egypt, was submitted to him. It was clearly shown by the micro- 

 scope that wherever the professedly ancient writing was crossed 

 by that of more modern times, the ink of the old letters lay upon in- 

 stead of under those of later date : precisely the reverse of what 

 must have been the case had the palimpsest been genuine. The 

 fraud was immediately and unanswerably exposed. 



There are other topics which claim a passing attention. Among 

 these: the proposition to establish a railway communication from 

 Europe to India, intended for the transport of goods as well as of 



