ABSTRACT
The Microscope, as an ally of chemistry, enables us to discover very minutely and completely the changes of form and colour effected by test-fluids upon solids; it dissects for us, so to speak, the most multiplex compounds; it opens to the mind an extended and vast panorama, opulent in wonders, rich in beauties, and boundless in extent. In prosecuting the study of vegetable physiology, the microscope is an indispensable instrument; it empowers the student to trace the earliest forms of vegetable life, and the functions of the different tissues and vessels in plants. The Zoologist finds in the microscope a necessary co-operator. To the geologist it reveals, among a multiplicity of other facts, “that large coal-beds are the ruins of a gigantic vegetation; and the vast limestone rocks. In medico-legal investigations the microscope has been frequently called into use; and in some cases human life has been pending upon its accuracy of decision.
