The scale of the instrument is first so adjusted by means of the adjusting screws provided with each instrument, as to bring the zero of the vernier and that of the scale exactly together. The telescope or ocular is then adjusted until the sharp line separating the halves of the field of vision is brought into focus. This being accomplished an observation tube filled with pure water is placed in the apparatus and the telescope again adjusted to bring the dividing line of the field into focus. The beginner especially, should repeatedly study this adjustment and be impressed with the fact that only in a sharply defined field are practical observations of any worth. The importance of having all the lenses perfect and all the cover glasses without a flaw may be fully appreciated when it is remembered that the polarized ray, already deprived of half its original luminous power, must pass through several centimeters of crystallized calcium carbonate, and half a dozen disks of glass and quartz, and as many lenses before reaching the eye of the observer. Only with the greatest care and neatness is it possible to secure the required degree of illumination. The zero point having been well studied and accurately adjusted, the scale of the instrument may be tried with a series of quartz plates of known polarizing power at the temperature of the observation. In the apparatus with double quartz wedge compensation, it will be noticed that the marks on one scale are black and on the other red. The black is the working and the red the control scale. To operate this instrument, the red scale is placed exactly at the zero point. The black scale is also placed at zero, and if the field of vision is not neutral, it is made so by the micrometer screw with which the black scale is provided. In a right-handed solution, the red scale is left at zero and the black one moved to the right until neutrality in the field of vision is reached and the reading is taken. The observation tube containing the sugar solution is taken out and the red scale moved until the field of vision is again neutral and the reading of the red scale taken. The two readings should agree. Any failure in the agreement shows some fault either in adjusting the apparatus or in its construction, or some error in manipulation.