Br. Beetle's Preparations for the Microscope. 327 



earned a reputation as evil as the one just mentioned was 

 good, by keeping two tame ravens, which people persisted in 

 believing to be a brace of demons who had only assumed the 

 forms of those birds. 



DE. BEALE'S PEEPAEATIONS FOE THE 

 MICEOSOOPE. 



We have on former occasions expressed our admiration of the 

 methods of research adopted by Dr. Lionel Beale, and we 

 think he is fairly entitled to demand that those who controvert 

 his statements of fact shall subject their opinions to the tests 

 which he points out. Dr. Beale by no means affirms that the 

 minute structures he has investigated can be seen any how. 

 On the contrary, he declares that very careful preparation of a 

 particular kind is essential to success. This is so much in 

 accordance with the probabilities of the case that no one who 

 declines to try this method of examination ought to be received 

 as a valid witness in the matter ; nor do we think any one who 

 has only employed low powers, or high ones of inferior con- 

 struction, can be placed in legitimate opposition to a singularly 

 able microscopist, who has used the finest object-glasses that 

 have been produced. 



Few Continental observers seem to have any idea of the 

 perfection to which our opticians have brought high powers. 

 When the work of our best makers is employed, it is simply 

 absurd to suppose that a high degree of enlargement necessarily 

 throws doubt upon what is seen. Difficulties of interpretation 

 are inseparable from many branches of investigation, but they 

 are certainly not increased by a resort to first-class high powers, 

 as anyone may satisfy himself by well-selected experiments. 

 On the contrary, the high power continually gives certainty to 

 what the lower power left as conjectural; and when it discloses 

 appearances which lower powers did not indicate the existence 

 of, the accuracy of the representation is as trustworthy as that 

 of any other representation afforded with the same amount of 

 distinctness by a lower power. 



In Dr. Beale' s researches into the distribution and termina- 

 tion of nerves, and into the formation of tissues, the plan fol- 

 lowed has been to select an animal favourable for such inquiries, 

 and to prepare it by injection and the subsequent free use of 

 glycerine and solution of carmine. The green tree-frog (Hyla 

 arborea) is his favourite subject. He kills the animal by 

 wrapping it in a cloth and dashing it on the ground. An 



