HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



121 



THE MICROSCOPE AND MICROSCOPIC WORK 



No. VI.-By F. KITTON. 



HE unsatisfactory 

 performance of the 

 instruments in use 

 in the seventeenth 

 and eighteenth cen- 

 turies is evinced 

 by the numerous 

 forms of micro- 

 scopes constantly 

 "invented" by the 

 opticians of the period. Fifteen 

 years after Martin had in- 

 vented his Universal Micro- 

 scope, an optician of the name 

 of Ayscough introduced ano- 

 ther " Universal Microscope," 

 of which a description appears 

 in the Universal Magazine for 

 April, 1753, "Sent us by our 

 Old Correspondent Amico-Ma- 

 thematicus." This is written 

 in the sententious style so 

 common in the eighteenth 

 century. We give the follow- 

 ing extracts from his paper : — 

 " The microscope has been the source of an 

 infinite number of discoveries, and consequently 

 given us new motives to adore and be sensible 

 of the hand of the Creator. This instrument 

 has by ocular demonstration confuted all those 

 empty formations which have falsely been attributed 

 to matter, and unveiled to our eyes the immediate 

 operation or action of a wisdom which daily 

 produces everything, or from one day to another 

 unfolds what in the beginning was created in 

 miniature, that it might again produce and per- 

 petuate itself through all ages. 



"The microscope shows us all those insects burst- 

 ing from the eggs that contained them. There are 

 at present no plants whose seed it does not discover 

 to us. The very mushroom has its own ; and the 

 dung which may very well nourish it can no longer 

 be supposed to generate it." 

 No. 138. 



This instrument appears to have been very 

 portable, and could be used either as a simple, 

 or compound, or double (as they were then called) 

 microscope: the focal adjustment appears to have 

 been made by sliding the stage up or down. 



The Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxiv., 1754, 

 contains some figures of microscopic objects, and a 

 description of them by A. Y., accompanied by the 

 following letter •. — 



Mr. Urban, — 



Having observed that in the cuts which 

 accompany your most useful Magazine, the very 

 spaces between the larger objects are filled up with 

 something pleasing and instructive, for a future 

 supply of such, when they may be wanted, I have 

 sent you a few exact representations of micro- 

 scopical objects, beginning at first with the more 

 simple ones, for even such afford no small amuse- 

 ment to the curious. If I find you think them 

 worthy a place, I may perhaps furnish you with 

 others yet more entertaining.— Yours, &c, 



Aug. 6. A. Y. 



The following is a list of these "amusing and 

 instructive objects" :—l. A few grains of Sand. 2. 

 A drop of Salted Water grown dry. 3. A drop ot 

 Water wherein hay, straw, &c, have been soaked. 



4. A drop of Vinegar, which has been exposed to 

 the air in mild weather. It exhibits lively animals 

 nearly resembling little eels, and seldom any other. 



5. Nitre. G. Sugar, which the describer says forms 

 globules. 7. A drop of Oyster liquor, kept 3 

 or 4 clays in a drinking-glass. " We are by no 

 means to imagine that the little eels in the vinegar 

 or the animalcules in the infusions are the offspring 

 of putrefaction. Experience informs us that if the 

 vessels be close-stopped nothing will be produced. 

 We ought, then, to conclude that when they are 

 open, the females floating in the air come thither 

 and deposit their eggs or spawn in a place which 

 may favour their hatching, and supply them with 

 food." 



In the [November part of the same volume these 



G 



