336 Transactions of the Society. 



tionum Medicophysicarurn " of L653 is. we believe, the first medical 

 work involving the use of the Microscope,* and the following 

 quotation suggests that he had already, at that early date, obtained 

 a view of the blood-corpuscles. 



" < >n -whale-shaped Insects in Human Blood (Century in 

 Observation 4): Animals of the shape of whales or dolphins 

 swim in the human blood as in a red ocean .... These creatures, 

 it may be supposed (since they themselves lack feet), were formed 

 for the bodily use of the more perfect animals within which they 

 are themselves contained, and that they should consume the" 

 depraved elements of the blood. f If you would see them, take a 

 sheep or ox liver, cut it in small portions and place it in water, 

 teasing and separating it with your hands, and you will see many 

 such animals escaping from them, nor will they be destitute of 

 movement if the liver is fresh. They lurk in the large veins, and 

 I think that they are those worms which are found in the stomach, 

 being transformed when they change their position." 



In 1655 Borel issued a work on the telescope with which is 

 bound up a series of one hundred microscopic observations, mainly 

 on minute insects, with a few crude illustrations.^ The separate 

 issue of these microscopic observations a few months later consti- 

 tutes the first book devoted to microscopy. Borel is one of the 

 best authorities for the early history of Microscopes and Microscopy, 

 and a general summary of his more striking observations may not 

 be out of place here. 



1. Acari were examined and found to be hairy bear-like 

 creatures, in which our author claimed to distinguish legs and eyes 

 as well as various internal organs. 



2. Vinegar had long been known to contain at times minute 

 worms or " serpentes." He investigated these Nematodes and 

 remarked on their movements. 



3. Borel examined the hairs of bees and of other insects as well 

 as of man, and vegetable fibres. All were found to be not solid 

 but hollow. 



4. Minute insects found floating in the air were closely observed 



* Pierre Borel, " Historiarum et Observatiouum Medicophysicarurn Centuria, 

 prima (et secunda),'' Castres, 1653. Our authority for the existence of this edition, 

 which we have not seen, is Hoefer's " Nouvelle Biographie UniverseUe." We have 

 ourselves used and quoted the Paris edition of 1656. There were several sub- 

 sequent editions. 



t The language of Borel at this point is not very clear, and it is possible 

 that he had been examining .small clots rather than blood-corpuscles. We 

 incline, however, to the belief that it was the corpuscles themselves that he had 

 seen. In any event, he has an unequivocal passage on the subject in his volume 

 of microscopical observations. 



X Pierre Borel, " De vero Telescopii Inventore cum brevi omnium couspi- 

 cillorum historia. . . Accessit etiam Centuria Observatiouum Microscopicarum," 

 The Hague, 1655. The separate title-page of the microscopic observations bears 

 the date 1656 



