164 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 108. 



What is a microscopist ? First and last, an 

 amateur who rejoices in the beautiful variet} T 

 of microscopical specimens ; one who treasures 

 slides in the exact centre of which is a ring of 

 cement neatly put on, and holding a cover-glass 

 under which lies some fine test-object, — a 

 delicate diatom, a podura scale, a bit of tissue 

 the vessels of which are injected with gor- 

 geous red, a polarizing crystal : in short, almost 

 any tiny scrap of the universe, if so it be 

 pretty in the pattern of its shape and color. 

 These same treasured slides must have neatly 

 bordered labels, and be catalogued and stored 

 by a special system. The microscopist is one 

 who has a formidable and extensive deal of 

 brass stand, which can hold together a cabinet 

 of appliances ; and he will display the most 

 admirable patience in getting them in posi- 

 tion, until at last he sees the specimen, and is 

 ready to clean and pack awa} T his apparatus. 

 His series of objectives is his glory ; and he 

 possesses a fifteenth of Smith and Brown, which 

 will resolve a band of Nobert's not to be re- 

 solved by the objectives of any of his friends. 

 His instrument is his pet : about it his interest 

 centres, while the direction of his studies is 

 determined, not by any natural bond between 

 the objects, but by the common quality of 

 minuteness. Is it not curious ? Imagine any 

 one deliberateh- setting out to study whatever 

 he could cut with a knife. We should pity the 

 man who chopped up the sciences according to 

 the instrument he used. We cannot be brought 

 to regard anatomy as a department of cutlery, 

 nor can we seriously admit histology as a de- 

 partment of microscopy. 



Scientific men have been veiy lenient towards 

 the microscopists ; and yet the latter, who have 

 long been allowed to march as hangers-on to the 

 regular scientific army, have gradually lagged 

 behind. The army has grown, and divided into 

 man}' separate corps, traversing the country of 

 the unknown in all directions, and the micros- 

 copist knows not whither to follow. If he turns 

 in any direction, he must join with the special 

 work there, and can glean only in one field : 

 he is no longer the universal gatherer. One 



must be of the army to be with it, and the 

 forces are too scattered for any hanger-on to 

 flit from one division to another. The would- 

 be microscopist has no place among scientific 

 investigators. He must enlist in one company 

 and there remain, or else be content to rank as 

 an amateur, and not as a scientific man. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*** Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 

 writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



The north magnetic pole. 



With my article in Science, No.98 (Dec. 19, 1884), en- 

 titled ' The Netschilluk Innuit,' there appeared a map 

 of the distribution of those Eskimo, in which I placed 

 the north magnetic pole in about longitude 99° 35' 

 west from Greenwich, or about sixty-five miles due 

 west of the position given by Koss, its discoverer, in 

 his sledge-journey of 1831. Since this map was issued 

 I have received two letters from well-known scientific 

 gentlemen, and a personal inquiry from another, ask- 

 ing why I so mapped this change in the magnetic 

 pole, and on what observations or conclusions it was 

 based, even though I had put an interrogation-point 

 after the words indicating the position. It is well 

 known that many calculations have been made re- 

 specting the western movement of this pole since its 

 discovery; and, varying as they do, they all, so far as 

 I have seen, would place it much farther to the west, 

 for the year 1879, than my location gives it. 



The above inquiries and facts make me think it 

 would be interesting to give in your publication the 

 rude and approximate manner in which I located it 

 as above, leaving each one to judge of its value. Its 

 latitude I assumed to be the same as that determined 

 by Koss, as all writers speaking of its revolution, 

 whatever be its rate, give the geographical pole as its 

 centre. Its latitude, therefore, would not vary. I 

 consider this co-ordinate, determined in this manner, 

 by far the most unreliable of the two ; I believe, how- 

 ever, that those interested in the subject will consider 

 it also the least important, as being the least likely to 

 vary considerably. My only instrument for deter- 

 mining the position of the pole was an ordinary com- 

 pass, but an extremely delicate and reliable one in 

 its proper sphere, and returning to the same point, 

 in the temperate zones, to within less than a degree 

 of arc started from any position that could be given. 

 When at Cape Felix, the most northern point of 

 King William's Land, the needle remained sluggishly 

 in almost any position that was given it ; when pointed 

 in a north-east or south-west direction, I thought I 

 detected a slight tendency to move to the westward. 

 At Franklin Point I made some seventy-five to one 

 hundred observations (the exact number I have in 

 my journals, packed in Portland, Ore.; but I think 

 my memory will be close enough for descriptive pur- 

 poses, and probably more exact than the rough 

 approximations), and the horizontal needle now 

 commenced to show a little activity; a mean of the 

 observations showing about longitude 99°, where its 

 direction cut the Ross latitude of the magnetic pole. 

 Near Point Little, I took the longest and most careful 

 series of observations, and the needle always returned 

 to within 18° (this I distinctly remember) of the pole 

 as I have located it in the Netschilluk map, and this 



