pin would give. The transparency of any of
these papillæ is increased by treating them
with a solution of soda." This is enough to
make a nervous patient afraid to show his
tongue to a microscopically-inclined doctor.

Anatomical preparations, therefore, are the
dearest, in consequence of the pains required
to make them perfect. But, as far as price
is concerned, all the microscopic preparations
in the market are, generally speaking, and at
present, wonderfully cheap. Only try and
produce a few at the same price yourself, and
you will see. They are not mechanical
productions, like nails and buttons, that can be
turned off by the gross; every one must
have the touch of the master given to it
before it can pass into the scientific market;
and such things cannot be done by deputy ,
any more than statues and pictures can. Our
preparers (one would think) must be actuated
quite as much by the love of art as by
the love of gain. Suppose a man can turn
off thirty successful preparations a-day for
five days in the week all the year round, he
has not made a large income at the highest
rate of payment. But, those who have to
study for, and collect, and prepare their
materials for any pursuit that comes within
the range of art, well know that five days
a week of productive labour is more than
they can accomplish continually, even with
the division of labour brought about by the
aid of sons or pupils.

To come to financial particulars. Mr.
Samuel Stevens, the well-known
natural-history agent, of Bloomsbury Street, has on
sale good preparations elegantly mounted and
packed in neat boxes containing one or two
dozen, at half-a-guinea per dozen. His
published list offers a choice of more than
two hundred numbered objects of great
variety. To point out a few; the palates
of snails and of freshwater and marine
mollusks are very remarkable. When we see a
soft snail eating a hard cabbage-leaf or carrot
—if we reflected on the operation—we must
conclude that it cannot be performed without
the agency of teeth. The microscope
shows us, in a well-prepared palate
from a land or water-snail, rows upon rows
of teeth, containing altogether hundreds and
hundreds of molars. The shark devours
animal food, and so does the whelk. But,
talk of a shark's rows of teeth! they are
nothing to the weapons that line the mouth of
a whelk,—half-a-dozen in each row in the
middle, with a chevaux-de-frise of tusks on
either side. Are a dozen different mollusk
palates—ready for comparison and study—
dear at half-a-guinea? Simply think of the
time and cost, requisite to produce them as
home-made articles.

Upon the whole, there is nothing superior
to the immense variety of objects supplied, at
from fifteen, to eighteen shillings per dozen,
by Amadio, of Throgmorton Street. The
sections of wood are very perfect, resembling
exquisite crochet-work or lace, and displaying
even greater beauty under high powers
than under low, which is a test of their excellence.
Sponge and gorgonia spicules form
another set of lovely minutiæ, which are
different in each respective species of
zoophyte. Some are like yellow Hercules'
clubs of sugar-candy, which would attract
wonderfully in a confectioner's window;
others are cut-glass billiard-cues intermixed
with crystal stars. Objects of unusual rarity,
or difficulty, or unpleasantness, are dearer
everywhere, as it is only reasonable. That
charming creature, the itch-insect,—a
discourse has been written setting forth the
pleasures and advantages of the itch-disease,
—costs four shillings; the bed-bug is a less
expensive luxury, though more so than the
ordinary run of objects. In all these, the
microscope illustrates the wonders of creation;
but there are also preparations wherein the
art of man is rendered visible. Upon a
small circle of glass is a dim grey spot
about the size and shape of the letter U at
the beginning of this sentence. To the naked
eye, it is unmeaning and indistinct. Viewed
with a sufficient power, it displays a mural
monument, on the face of which is an
inscription, in nineteen lines of capital letters,
"In Memory of William Sturgeon"—with a
longer biographical notice than I have room
for here, and all within considerably less than
the limits of this letter U. It is not, as
might be supposed, the manual result of
patient toil and eye-straining; nor is the
feat accomplished by clever mechanical
arrangements; it is an application of the
photographic art. Not only are microscopic
photographs taken from fixed and inanimate
objects, like the above mural monument, but
also from living personages, and even groups
from life.

First, an ordinary photograph is taken,
say four and a-quarter inches, by three
and a-quarter. The picture so obtained is
gradually reduced by using lenses of a short
focal length. When an engraving or a
monumental tablet has to be reduced, the
photographic picture may be taken much smaller
in the first instance; but, when a group of
figures from life or an individual portrait
is required, a lens of comparatively greater
focal length must be used. It is impossible
to get, from life, a very small picture at the
first step; because the various portions of
the group would not all be distinctly in the
focus. Microscopic photographs are sold at
four and sixpence each. Loyal or loving
persons can thus carry about with them, at a
cheap rate, the portrait of their sovereign or
their sweetheart, packed in the smallest
possible compass. By similar means, secret
correspondence can be carried on. A microscopic
message photographed on glass, might, pass
through a multitude of hostile hands, without
its import being even suspected. Timid
suitors might save their blushes by the