Curiosities of Science, Past and Present / A Book for Old and Young

by John Timbs

USE OF THE MICROSCOPE TO MINERALOGISTS.

M. Dufour has shown that an imponderable quantity of a substance can be crystallised; and that the crystals so obtained are quite characteristic of the substances, as of sugar, chloride of sodium, arsenic, and mercury. This process may be extremely valuable to the mineralogist and toxicologist when the substance for examination is too small to be submitted to tests. By aid of the microscope, also, shells are measured to the thousandth part of an inch.