Half-hours with the microscope : being a popular guide to the use of the microscope as a means of amusement and instruction / by Edwin Lankester ; illustrated from nature by Tuffen West.

  • Edwin Lankester
Date:
[1860]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Half-hours with the microscope : being a popular guide to the use of the microscope as a means of amusement and instruction / by Edwin Lankester ; illustrated from nature by Tuffen West. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    When objects not requiring tlie live-box or ani- malcule-cage are to be observed, they may be transferred, to the glass slide, by aid of a tbin slip of wood, or a porcupine-quill moistened at tbe end, or by a pair of small forceps. Some trans- parent objects may be seen without any medium, but generally it is best to place them on the slide with a drop or two of clean water, which may be placed on it with a dipping-tube. When water is used, it will generally be found best to cover the object with a small piece of thin glass. Small square pieces of thin glass are sold at all the opticians’ shops for this purpose. The object is then placed under the object-glass as before. In order to render objects transparent, so that they may be viewed by transmitted light, very thin sections of them should be made. This may be effected by means of a very sharp seal] el, or a razor. When objects are too small to be held in the hand to be cut, they may be placed between two pieces of cork, and a section of them made at the same time that the cork is cut through. Sometimes it is found desirable to unravel an object under the Microscope. If this is the case, only a low power should be used, and tbe object may be placed on a glass slide, without any glass over, and two needles with small wooden liaudles employed—ordinary sewing needles, with their eyes stuck in the handle of a hair-pencil, will answer very well. Even when dissection is not to be carried on under the Microscope, a pair of needles of this sort, for tearing minute structures in pieces, will be found very useful. When opaque objects are to be examined, the light from the mirror may be shut off, and the aid of the bull’s-eye condenser called in. The object being secured in the forceps attached to the stage