THE 
fae eH NOLOGI SE. 
May, 1867. 
—-)-—-—— 
COMMON OBJECTS FOR THE MICROSCOPE. 
No. I. 
BV W. F. HUNTER. 
HERE is no direction in which scientific research has 
made more wonderful advances within the last fifty 
years than in the investigation of those minute bodies and 
structures which are revealed to us only by the aid of the 
microscope. Upon the construction of the instrument 
itself a vast amount of skill and labour has been expended 
by those who have devoted themselves to the study of 
optics, and in the hands of the most talented mechanicians 
it has been brought to a marvellous pitch of perfection. 
Wide, indeed, is the domain of microscopic inquiry; a 
great deal of light has already been thrown upon those 
mysterious processes of organic life, with reference to 
which our forefathers could make but the crudest and 
vaguest guesses. 
As regards the growth and development of the animal 
tissues, the influence of disease in altering their structure 
and impairing their functions, and as regards the great 
problem of reproduction, much has been discovered, but 
much more remains to be discovered. 
In the mineral kingdom microscopic research has led to 
many startling discoveries, and has shown the way in which 
many of the strata forming the crust of our globe have 
been formed. It has been proved that the chalk, which 
seems for the most part so uniform in structure, is mainly 
composed of shells and other organic remains, so exces- 
sively minute as only to be visible under a considerable 
magnifying power; the remains of animals that lived their 
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