1878 .] 
107 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
the glass stage of the microscope comes, he bores an 
inch hole (Z>). Then in the cigar-box, he places, as 
yon see in figure 5, a mirror ( B ), so arranged that it can 
be turned to any angle, to reflect the light, 
■WHETHER DAT-LIGHT OR LAMP-LIGHT, 
up through the hole in the cigar-box, and through the 
glass stage of the microscope, and thus allowing all 
transparent objects to be seen as the microscope stands, 
without holding it up to the light. You see how he has 
done it.—He turned a round stick, left a piece to hold the 
mirror, and worked that 
out afterwards with 
chisels. He put a standard 
upright ( A ) in the box; 
one end of his piece which 
holds the mirror goes into 
a hole in this standard, 
the other (C) through a 
hole in one end of the box. 
But you who have r.o turn¬ 
ing lathe must have some¬ 
thing simple. Whittle a round stick that will go quite 
through the cigar-box, and project half an inch at each 
end. Make a flat place on the middle of the stick; upon 
this tack, or with small nails, attach a thin piece of stuff, 
such as the cigar-box is made of, as in figure 6. Get your 
mirror; any piece of looking-glass will do, and if you can’t 
get it cut to just the shape you would like, never mind. 
Fasten your piece of look¬ 
ing-glass to the board on 
the round stick by means 
of strips of paper and 
paste, if cut square, as in 
figure 6, but if you can’t 
cut it, fasten it on some- 
_ how by bands and strips, 
Fig. 7. MIRROR MOUNTED. ag flgnre . A11 you 
want is a piece of looking-glass that will throw light up 
through the hole in your cigar-box, that will allow you to 
see transparent objects with the Microscope as it stands 
there. Fignre 5 shows Mr. B.’s neat arrangement, figs. 
6 and 7 show how to fix a regular bit of looking-glass, if 
you can get one, and figure 8 hints at an irregular bit. 
Only recollect that you wish to put a reflector at any de¬ 
sired angle, and 
keep it there, 
and you will 
do it somehow. 
Remember it is 
not those who 
have the most 
costly instru¬ 
ments that learn 
Fig. 8.—ROUGH mirror. the most, and 
one great use of 
the American Agriculturist Microscope will be to put you 
up to contriving things. You know that those in any pecu¬ 
liar occupation have their own terms; so, Microscopists 
talk about things which others will not understand. 
They will talk about “ preparations,” “ slides,” and 
“mounted slides.” You look at something which in¬ 
terests you, no matter what it may be—a small seed or 
a minute insect, or the part of one, and yon wish to pre¬ 
pare this so that you can look at it again—and in this you 
will find much of interest in the Microscope—you would 
like to put it in some shape that will allow you to show 
it to some one else, it may be to-day, but more likely days, 
or weeks, from now. Anything put up or prepared to be 
kept and examined at some future time 
IS CALLED A PREPARATION OR MOUNTED OBJECT. 
It may be some simple thing, or it may be some dissec¬ 
tion or part of an insect, that you have spent hours upon. 
Now I come to this matter of “preparations,” knowing 
that there are many difficulties, but I will try to make it 
as plain as possible; besides this, it is a matter on which 
considerable money may be expended, and I must keep 
that in view too. In fact, those who will wish to go to 
much expense, will have a more costly microscope than 
MOUNTING MIRROR. 
ours of the American Agriculturist, and will be able to get 
some of the many books on the subject... .So to begin 
with the simplest kind of preparation. But in the first 
place, let me tell you that my microscope talk has run 
over into the old-folks’ part of the paper, and you will 
find on page 103 a talk about clover seeds, and the seeds of 
weeds that may be mixed with the clover, which you may 
care to loolcat, especially as on the circular that goes with 
each Microscope,something is said about clover seeds. But 
TO GET BACK TO OUR PREPARATION. 
You have seen the seed of Red Clover, and of White 
Clover, under your Microscope, and you would like to be 
able to tell one from another, and these from any other 
clover or any other seeds. You might keep a little sam¬ 
ple of each done up in a paper, or what would be neater, 
in a little pill-box, which, as apothecaries have but little 
use for the very smallest size, you might be able to get 
very cheap from your apothecary. But in either case, you 
would have to get at your seeds, open the box, to put the 
seeds on the stage, and it would be a long job and a 
great deal of trouble. How much better it would be to 
have the seeds that you might wish to look at again 
ALREADY MOUNTED. 
Now to begin with, about mounting, as preparing ob¬ 
jects, (meaning anything to be looked at,) let us start 
with some clover seeds. We have called the squares of 
glass (made square because they take up less room and 
weigh less, but would be more convenient if twice as long 
as wide) slides. We start with clover, or such like seeds, 
and you will recollect that these are to be looked at as 
opaque objects— i. e., the light falls upon , but does not 
shine through them. So you will see from the start that 
the slide for these need not be of glass. The best ma¬ 
terial for this purpose will be wood. Use a thin piece—a 
very thin piece of wood—your cigar-box wood—a piece 
of stiff veneer—anything that is thin, and not clumsy. If. 
is well to start with a size, and as microscopists have, for 
their powerful instruments, found that one by three inches 
is a convenient size, we may as well have ours of that 
size. So get out some wooden slips 3 inches long and 1 
inch wide, and of any wood you choose, worked thin. I 
say “ some,” because it is well always to have a lot on 
hand, to mount other seeds that may come along. Having 
your wooden slides ready, you will then want 
SOME PASTE-BOARD SLIDES 
of just the same size. Any stiff card-board will do; old 
boxes may be put to good use, and you will want—recol¬ 
lect that we are to use them for seeds—slides of different 
thicknesses. Well, having your paste-boards of the size 
of your wooden slides, you will need to make a hole in 
the paste-boards. This hole may be % an inch across, or 
of that of the size of the “cell” which comes with the 
Microscope. Now about cutting these holes: If you have 
a brother, or a neighbor who uses a gun and has a “patch 
cutter,”—which is a sharp steel ring, that with a blow, 
will cut a neat circle out of your paste-board slides—you 
can borrow that. If not, nse the cell, mark through it on 
your paste - board 
slide with a pencil, 
and then cut the hole 
with a sharp pen¬ 
knife. If there is a 
6 rough edge, rub it 
down with something smooth. Having your wooden 
slide (fig. 9) and your paste-board slide with the hole 
through it, (fig. 10,) then stick them together, with flour 
paste or mucilage, and put them under a weight—so that 
the paste board will not curl, until dry. But we are not 
through yet. We must blacken the slide. As directed for 
making the eye-piece, use black ink, and blacken the 
cavity in your slide. 
Now it will be 
a very shallow cell, 
with a wooden 
bottom and paste- 
board all around. Fl &' paste-board cell. 
Blacken the whole of this cavity well, and if one coat of 
ink is not enough, put on another. Having done this, 
now for your seeds, and this will require some care. 
Select half a dozen or so of the seeds that you wish to 
keep, touch the least quantity of mncilage, to the spot, 
and then put on your seeds, one at a time. Here you will 
find the little forceps, mentioned in the circular, come 
into good service, but with care, and a small knife, you 
can manage without those. Let the mucilage holding the 
seeds in place in the cavity of your slide dry. You then 
will want to finish the mounting. Take a piece of any 
rather stout paper, 
white or any color 
you choose, of the 
right size, to quite 
cover your slide ; 
make a hole in this, Fi &- H.—the slide complete. 
to correspond with the hole in the paste-board. Cover the 
wrong side with paste, or mucilage, putting it on neatly, 
and let it dry. You will now have a strip of wood, a strip 
of paste-board with a hole in it, forming a cell , in which 
are your seeds , and all bound together by a strip of paper. 
Now on the paper you will write the name of your speci¬ 
men. We will suppose it to be “Red Clover.” Write 
this neatly on one side of the cell, and if you choose you 
can put a number on the other, (fig. 11). It will take 
less time to do this, than I have taken to write it, and 
you have a slide that you can refer to at any time, if you 
wish to know how red clover looks. In a similar man¬ 
ner you can put up seeds of all the clover weeds 
which are described in the article on page 103. 
When you hear the frogs peep, and the toads sing their 
spring song, (for toads do sing after their way), it will re- 
Fig. 12. —frog-spawn. Fig. 13. eggs. Fig. 14. 
mind you to look after their spawn. No doubt that those 
of you who live in the country know what it is—a mass oi 
very clear jelly, which yon can find in almost every pool 
of water in early spring. This is sometimes called “ frogs- 
spittle,” but it is really the spawn of either frogs or toads. 
Get some of the spawn—you will not want much, a table¬ 
spoonful or so will do—and place it in a saucer of water. 
It is a mass of eggs, held together by a clear jelly-like 
matter. Look at it with the Microscope, and you will see 
Fig. 15. Fig. 16. —vert young tadpole. 
spots all through it, as in fig. 12. These are the yolks of 
the eggs, and the interesting portion of the spawn. Keep 
the saucer in a warm room, near the window, and add 
water as it evaporates. You will need to look at it every 
day with your Microscope, taking off a bit and placing it 
on the slide. You will first notice that the yolk changes 
its shape, and begins to divide, first as in figure 13, then 
as in figure 14. The spots also increase in size, so that 
after a while you can see, without the glass, the form of 
the young animal, as in figure 15. Soon the eyes appear, 
figure 16, then a little hole shows where the mouth will 
be. All this while the animal has been growing, and as 
it has had no mouth, you are quite sure that it has eaten 
nothing. All the material for its growth has come from 
the jelly around it, but now having a mouth, and being 
able to live in another way, it wriggles about and gets 
away from the jelly, and swims freely in the water as a 
TADPOLE, OR POLLYWOG, 
as it is often called. Figure 17 shows the Tadpole as we 
Fig. 17. —developed tadpole. 
generally see it, but if you carefully examine the animal 
when very young, you will find some curious fringe¬ 
like things on each side of the head, as in 
figure 18. Those are the gills with which 
the young animal breathes at first, but it 
soon Joses these, as I shall tell you another 
time. If in going about you find in the 
pools fresh water snails, take a few home 
and put them in a jar or dish of water, and 
you will no doubt soon find little masses of 
jelly sticking to the sides of the jar. These 18. 
little lumps, which are not so large as a pea, contain the 
EGGS OF THE SNAILS, 
surrounded by a jelly in a similar manner to those in the 
frog-spawn. Their changes and the growth of the snails 
may be watched from day to day,as advised for the others. 
As spring advances, you will find new objects on every 
hand. A pool, or small pond, will furnish many inter¬ 
esting things, of which I shall say more another time.... 
Keep a look-out for the eggs of insects, some of which 
are very beautiful....As the days get warmer, various 
small insects will be plenty, and yon will find the various 
plant lice worth studying... .If you find upon a twig, or 
on a stem of grass, as you no doubt will later, what looks 
like froth, or spittle, take it home and examine it, and 
you will find it hides an insect_When the “ tags ” ap¬ 
pear on the alders and hazels, pick them apart, and see 
that each scale is really a little very simple flower .. I 
do not think we shall be obliged to give so much space 
to contrivances again, and we can give all the more to- 
the objects to be looked for. The Doctor. 
