626 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
that has ever used one of them; and still it is, to this i the favored 
One iPods by students thr ouifnaus France and Germ 
t objectives and eye pieces, I have nothing to mk in " dE to 
e giv 
hands of one observer, often proves an we failure in the hands of an- 
other, though both acknowledged ** adepts " in the use of the microscope. 
This undisputed fact should make one very careful before pronouncing 
ex cathedra upon the merits of objectives produced by artists of unques- 
tioned ability. In connection with this last remark, allow me to state that 
I shall be most happy to show to Dr. Hagen the Surirella gemma and its 
markings, which he only saw dimly with a 1-10th inch objective of Tolles; 
to show him, with a 1-8th inch immersion lens of W. Wales, the ** basket 
work," as we call the elongated hexagons of that fine test at the Bailey 
Club, as near to Hartnack's theoretical diagram, as it is practicable to 
accomplish in a microscope view of that diatom. This very same 1-8th 
play of the lines in question with his No. 11 — almost equal to the 1-15th 
of our makers — pronounced my poor 1-8th an ‘inferior pen ine 
**as long as I lived, would never resolve the Surirella gemma." mu 
for hasty judgments. The determination of the abstract, as well as ies 
tive merits of objectives, must stand, in the opinion of all experienced 
plexing and difficult problems to settle in practical op ties 
Although not having the right to claim thirty years aduperienos in the 
use of the microscope, and although one of the most insignificant dilet- 
tantis in the realm of microscopy, I venture to bring to bear my humble 
testimony, and some little experience gained in long European peregrina- 
tions, in favor of the superiority of English and American instruments, 
for both their mechanical and optical excellence, over all continental pro- 
ductions in the same line, begging here to mention, that in my statements 
I am influenced by no national prejudices, as I do not belong by birth, to 
either of the two aforesaid nationalities; neither am I a member of the 
Boston Optical Association. — T. O., Cornwall Landing, Sept. 16, 1870. 
WALES’ LOW POWER OBJECTIVES.*— May I ask of you the favor of a few 
lines in reply to Mr. Bicknell’s note in the NaTURALIST for June last. Mr. 
cknell agrees with me in according to Mr. Wales' objectives the high 
rank to which they are undoubtedly entitled, but in some way seems to 
the microscopic world. It was not that Mr. Wales’ 4-10 had an amplifica- 
tion of two hundred sna ten diameters, or that Mr. Wales’ did or did not 
deii a dad 
* This reply, with a ber of stponed on account of 
the space devoted to tq reports of the meeting of tlie American kadilo 
