Hunting With the Microscope was in some passages copied from Richard Headstrom’s Adventures with a Microscope. Yet–it is a decent book for the beginner. It is written in the same style as Adventures…, of course, which is to say screenplay-like, where “we” do this or that, and “we” see this. Johnson and Bleifeld probably could have done a fine work here, because the book covers many fascinating topics for the amateur. The simple line drawings and explanations are very good, and in fact, I photocopied all of the pages with drawings of most common microorganisms and pasted together a three page quick identification guide for myself. My favorite section is the one on hair and fibers, as the authors explain identification by means of medullary index as the ratio of the cortex to the medulla. See my posts on these topics. The book offers a fascinating introduction to forensics, and I immediately started collecting known animal hair and fibers of various types to build a reference collection. Headstrom does a better job in the “food adulteration,” and starch identification category, but Johnson and Bleifeld explain wood, its paper cells and fibers, and they cover nicely urinalysis. You need to have this book, but read Headstom first, so you know where they’re coming from.
