lens system of the microscope and can be viewed by an operator through that lens system in response to a signal from keyboard 64 microprocesor 58 automatically records or stores as a reference position of slide 10 and slide carrier 12 the x position of carriage 20 along rails 22 and the y position of carriage 28 along rails 30 this recorded reference position serves as a standard against which subsequent movements of the carriages are measured as schematically illustrated in fig3 slide 10 is provided with a sample 82 such as a smear of blood from a patient in accordance with the invention slide 10 is automatically moved along a meander path to enable a systematic careful and complete visual inspection of sample 82 by an operator via the lens system of a microscope upon the detecting of a microscopic object of interest in sample 82 the relative positions of carriages 20 and 28 along rails 22 and 30 respectively are stored in a non volatile internal memory of microprocessor 58 shown on displays 66 and 68 fig2 and 5 or printed on a sheet of paper by printer 70 in a preferred embodiment of the invention position coordinates for a multiplicity of detected microscopic objects e g 40 may be registered in a modular ram component e g in a card which may be disconnected from microprocessor 58 stored and subsequently reconnected to the microprocessor a slide can be successively shifted to a series of different positions by repeatedly actuating.