The article discusses the use of the compound microscope in criminal investigation. From time to time scientific investigators who use the microscope, as botanists, cytologists, bacteriologists, embryologists, workers in clinical laboratories, and others, have been called upon to assist the investigating officers in unraveling criminal problems, and in most instances their efforts have been of great value, not merely in finding evidence, but also in disclosing to those interested in criminology in a new line of attack on crime. Interesting cases of detection of crime by means of the microscope are reported by Gross and other eminent students of criminology. Isolated cases are reported from Austria, from Italy, from France and a few from the United States. The reasons why the compound microscope is not more generally employed in criminal investigation are as follows. First, The investigating officer does not know when the assistance of the expert microanalyst may be of value, nor does he know what material should be submitted for such examination. Second, when the material is finally submitted to the expert in the use of the microscope, it has passed through so many hands as to make the findings of little value. And third, the expert to whom the material is submitted not being a criminologist, is as a rule unable to give a rational interpretation of the findings.