797 
A NEW FORM OF MICROSCOPE FOR THE 
POCKET. 
By G. T. Brown. 
A pocket microscope, capable of doing really good work, 
lias long been wanted. The large and elaborately furnished 
instruments of the day answer perfectly in the study or the 
laboratory, although it is an open question if a great part of 
their mechanism might not be well dispensed with; but for 
use on emergencies which are perpetually arising at all sorts 
of inconvenient times, when access to the large microscope is 
out of question, a smaller instrument, which can be carried in 
the pocket as easily as a thermometer, will afford valuable 
assistance to the physiologist and pathologist, and often 
enable him to complete an investigation which would other¬ 
wise be postponed, or probably altogether neglected. 
Not only is it convenient, but often indispensable, to be 
able to carry on a minute examination in the sick chamber, 
or in the field or cowshed. Morbid products undergo change 
very rapidly, and unless an observation can be made imme¬ 
diately the inquirer is often left in doubt as to some essential 
particular, and hesitates to decide whether certain remark¬ 
able appearances are due to changes which have occurred in 
the living animal, or are the result of commencing putrefactive 
fermentation. 
The detection of microzymes in the blood of animals 
affected with splenic apoplexy and other blood diseases may 
be referred to by way of example. 
Pathologists are aware that the presence of Bacteria and 
Vibriones in the blood of living animals is an indication of a 
condition of that fluid, absolutely incompatible with mainte¬ 
nance of the vital functions. The discovery is therefore of 
essential importance, and it is seriously incumbent on the 
inquirer to determine whether the microzymes really exist in 
the blood of the living animal or were developed in that fluid 
after its removal from the body. 
Bacteria are common to organic fluids which have under¬ 
gone decomposition, and a few hours will suffice to account 
for their presence in fluids which presented no trace of them 
on the first examination. Hence the importance of micro- 
