REVIEWS. 
37 
of them. We mention this that they may be corrected in a second edition, 
which we hope may be soon called for. 
While these works may be regarded as furnishing the inquirer with 
what he needs as to the microscope, and the auxiliary instruments needed 
more or less by every student of nature, they do not fill a want which 
every day he will feel more and more. He will require a book sufficiently 
portable to be the constant companion of his microscope, which will briefly 
tell him what is known of the objects he has been examining, and also 
direct him to the best sources of information. This want is being now 
supplied in the “ Micrographic Dictionary,” published by Mr. J. 
Van Voorst, who seems to have resolved, that the school of British natu¬ 
ralists shall feel no want in their pursuits which can be remedied. Eight 
parts of the “ Micrographic Dictionary” have now appeared ; each number 
has made us more desirous of seeing its completion. We have already,* 
on the appearance of the first numbers, expressed our opinion of its utility 
—an opinion we see now no reason to alter. In the introduction prefixed 
to the early numbers are contained some observations on the selection of 
a microscope, which those about to purchase will not regret the careful 
perusal of; they are clearly and intelligibly written, as well as remarkably 
free from any tendency to exaggerate either the merits or defects of any 
particular maker. The plates and woodcuts, with which it is plentifully 
illustrated, possess the finish and accuracy which characterize the produc¬ 
tions of Mr. Van Voorst’s press. 
The microscopist being deeply imbued with that 11 love of progress ” 
which is so marked a characteristic of the present age, still feels dissatisfied 
with all the books on microscopy-—though their name is legion—which 
have issued from the press bearing on every imaginable subject on which 
the aid of that instrument can be called in. He wants “sympathy;” 
he needs “ assistancehe wishes to tell what “ he has done,” and “ to 
hear what others are occupied with.” 
There had existed in London a society which a high legal functionary, j - 
in a late remarkable trial, justly described as “ a learned body, who make 
it their object to pry into all things”—we mean, the Microscopical Society 
of London, which, from some cause or another—we suppose that defect in all 
societies, too cumbrous machinery—-was not so beneficial as might, from the 
zeal and ability of its members, have been expected; its Transactions, 
appearing at uncertain periods, had but a very limited circulation. From 
these and other causes, which we need not now discuss, it failed fully to 
* Nat. Hist. Kev., vol. i., p. 126. 
+ The Lord President’s address to the jury in the Torbane-hill mineral case. 
