The Dawn of Microscopical Discovery. By C. Singt r. 



339 



of providing evidence for his theory of the nature of plague. A 

 few of them we give here. 



" Experiment 1. — Take a piece of meat which you leave exposed 

 by night until the following dawn to the lunar moisture. Then 

 examine it carefully with the Microscope, and you will find the 



Pig. 48. — The Jesuit Father Athanasius Kircher. Prom a plate 

 by Bloemaert, dated Rome, 1655. 



contracted putridity to have heen altered by the moon into 

 innumerable wormlets of diverse size, which, however, would 

 escape the sharpest vision without a good Microscope . . . . 

 The same is true of cheese, milk, vinegar, and similar bodies of a 

 putrescible nature. The Microscope, however, must be no ordinary 

 one, but constructed with no less skill than diligence a- is mine, 



