124 T11E HISTOEY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MICROSCOPE 



Florence on September 1':!. 1624, more than three months after his 

 depart ure from Home : 



| ^.|,d your Kxcelleiicy an nrrh/tt/iiw, by which to see close the 

 smallest tilings, which 1 hope may give you no small pleasure and 

 ciilcrtainnifnt. as it dues me. I have been long in sending it. because 

 1 could nut perfect it before, having experienced some difficulty in 

 finding tin- \\a\- of cutting the glasses perfectly. The object must 

 lie placed on the movable circle \vliich is at the base, and moved to 

 see it all. for thai which one sees at one look is but a small part. 

 And liecaiise the distance between the lens and the object must be 

 iiio-i exact, in looking at objects which have relief one must be able 

 to move the g]a-> nearer or further, according as one is looking at 

 this or t hat part : t herefore the little tube is made movable on its stand 

 or gnide. as \\e may wish to call it. It must also be used in very 

 bright, dear \\eather, or even in the sun itself, remembering that the 

 object must be sufficiently illuminated. 1 have contemplated very 

 maiiv animals with infinite admiration, amongst which the flea is 

 nio-i horrible, the gnat and the moth the most beautiful ; and it was 

 with great satisfaction that I have seen how flies and other little 

 animals manage to walk sticking to the glass and even feet upwards. 

 But your Excellency will have the opportunity of observing thousands 

 and thousands of other details of the most curious kind, of which I 

 beg you to give me account. In fact, one may contemplate endlessly 

 the greatness of Nature, and how subtilely she works, and with what 

 unspeakable diligence. P. 8. The little tube is in two pieces, ami 

 you may lengthen ii or shorten it at pleasure.' 



It would be very strange, knowing Galileo's character, that in 

 1624, and after the attacks made on him for having perhaps a little 

 too much allowed the Dutch telescope to be considered his invention, 

 he should have been induced to imitate I h-ebbel's glass with the two 

 convex lenses, and have wished to make them pass as his own invention, 

 vhilst he had always used, and continued to use to the end of his days, 

 telescopes with a convex and a concave lens without showing that 

 he had read or in the least appreciated the proposal made by Kepler, 



since I {> | | . to use 1 wo convex glasses in order to have telescopes 

 with a large field and more powerful and convenient. 



In any case it is impossible to form a decided opinion on such a 



matter, the data failing; but the very fact Ihal from 1624 onwards 



ialileo thought no more of the (H-<-lii<t!i,io (probably because he found 



s powerful and lesii useful than the o,r/,W/of I >rebbel), as he 



had not occupied himself u it h it or had scarcely remembered it from 



year Kilo to L 624, seems sutlicient to show 1hat the occhialmo, 



''" microscope of !6ln. was a small Dutch telescope with two 

 "'" convex and one concave, and not a reduced Keplerian 



cope like that invented by I Mvbbel j n |r,-j|. 



I'b" name of microscope, like thai of telescope, originated with 



Academy of the Lincei, and it was Giovanni Faber who invented 

 a letter of his to Cesi, written April \:\. 162.1. and 

 the Lincei letters iii the possession of I). 15. llon- 

 Here is the passage in Faber's letter :- 



this more to vour K.xcellencv. Ihal is. that 



