316 General Notes. [May, 
ago. they were believed to be a large and important contribution to the 
progress of microscopy, but the methods worked out by Dr. Hunt were 
so unselfishly communicated, and the objects so liberally distributed and 
so largely studied and imitated, that they have long since become com- 
mon property. Even the addition of double (vegetable) staining, sys- 
tematized and rendered practically successful through the talented labors 
of Dr. Hunt and Dr. Beattie, is no longer spoken of as a novelty here. 
In comparison, if not in contrast, with these criticisms by a practical 
foreign artisan may be noticed a critical paper on the same subject by a 
leading American botanist and philosophical microscopist, Dr. J. G, 
Hunt, just published in the Cincinnati Medical News. Dr. Hunt dis- 
cusses American as compared with foreign microscopes at the Centennial. 
The new Ross stands he considers superior to the old form in im- 
proved appearance, greater accuracy of motion, more steadiness with 
less clumsiness, and a binocular prism not moved by focusing, but the 
stage is considered still too thick, the change of power during fine ad- 
justment a perceptible fault, and the finish only moderately good. 
Beck’s large stand is considered the best of foreign make in form and 
finish, though defective in lacking centring adjustments to the rotating 
stage (which we think were added to some of the stands exhibited at the 
Centennial), and in want of durability in the stage movements. The 
stands by Mr. Crouch are considered excellent and durable, and success- 
fully cheapened without sacrificing commercial good work. His claim 
of the adjustable concentric stage is denied in favor of Zentmayer who 
introduced it sixteen years ago. [Mr. Zentmayer undoubtedly intro- 
duced this adjustment long ago with a screw-driver movement, which he 
still prefers, while Mr. Crouch has more recently added milled heads so 
that it can be moved without tools. ] 
The Nachet stands are considered neither elegant, convenient, nor 
durable, and the Hartnack instruments, not exhibited, are rated as clever 
working instruments in a restricted way, but inferior to the English and 
American, 
German instruments are not esteemed, and are scarcely considered 
instruments of precision at all. 1 
Of American stands only Zentmayer’s are specially discussed, and these 
are judged to be preéminent, being the best microscopical work on ex- 
"hibition, and having no superiors anywhere. His“ American Centennial ” 
stand is considered superior in workmanship and design to any others 
in the exhibition or elsewhere. The hinging of the bar which carries 
all the illuminating apparatus, including the mirror, at the level of the 
object on the stage so as to revolve around that object, is credited exclu- 
sively to Zentmayer, and stated to’ have been wanting in the Rochester 
1 The principal novelties introduced in the construction of this stand have been 
already specified in the Naruraist. We heartily concur with Dr. Hunt that this is 
the best first-class stand yet produced in the world. 
