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SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
the milled head which actuates the movement is placed above the stage close 
to tlie fine-adjustment screw of the body-tube. By this means it is 
possible to obtain very great precision and to adjust the two movements 
simultaneously with one band. 
The arrangement of the condenser as planned by us (and employed 
for several months with all our Microscopes) is, we believe, an important 
improvement. It consists of an iris-diaphragm surmounted by the lens- 
holder; between these two pieces slides a plate, removable at will, 
provided with a central rotating ring which serves for the reception of 
the diaphragms. The lens-holder is adapted to receive the different 
Abbe condensers, the Zeiss achromatic condenser, and also adapter plates 
allowing the use of all the excellent condensers of Powell and Lealand, 
and may hence be considered of universal application. 
To sum up, we have in this instrument combined all the conditions 
of perfection which long experience in microscopical work has taught us, 
and Messrs. Watson have realized all our desiderata with a care and 
precision which we scarcely dared hope for. If we add that this apparatus, 
so perfect, costs only 400 francs (16Z.), and consequently less than the 
large Continental models, it will readily be admitted, we believe, that 
the makers have rendered a real service to serious workers by 
its construction.” 
The Graphological Microscope.* — Mr. C. M. Vorce writes : — 
“ Among the most important of the applications of the Microscope to 
what are called ‘ business uses * is the examination of writings, books, &c. 
The use of the Microscope for such purposes has rapidly increased in the 
last ten or fifteen years, until now scarcely a case of importance whose 
turning-point rests on the authenticity of written or printed matter, is 
tried without the papers or books in question being submitted to Micro- 
scopical examination at the hands of experts, real or supposed. Among 
the points to which such examinations are applied may be mentioned 
the detection of forgery, alteration, erasure, interpolation, &c., the 
detection of the authorship of simulated or anonymous writing, the 
determination of relative age of different writings, identity or difference 
in inks, pencil marks, paper, &c. ; detection of erased writings, the 
character of stains, marks, mutilations on paper and elsewhere. 
Many of the questions involved require very delicate and prolonged 
examination for their determination, and sometimes the use of high 
powers, but by far the greater number of questions involve the use of 
but low or medium powers, and usually the examination of considerable 
surfaces. Probably every Microscopist who has had occasion to examine 
writings to any extent has felt the inconvenience of the best modern 
Microscopes for that purpose, owing to their limited stage room and 
short rack. In very many cases the examination required involves the 
comparison of a considerable number of papers, and often of the entire 
surface of a good sized sheet of paper. The examination of books, such 
as hotel registers, Bibles, account books, &c., is almost impossible of 
satisfactory accomplishment with ordinary Microscopes, the only way to 
proceed being usually to place the instrument on the book and focus 
through the stage-well. The ‘Tank Microscope’ of some English 
Microscope, xi. (1891) pp. 47-50, 
