118 THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



being identical, and thus we find it recorded of Galileo that he con- 

 structed instruments for the magnification of small objects in 1612. 

 He did not care so much for these as he did for his telescope and 

 the glorious field of astronomical discovery it had opened up to 

 him, and so his right to be considered the inventor of the two in- 

 struments has been overshadowed by the working opticians ot 

 that period. 



The invention of the telescope appears to be variously ascribed 

 to several others, and its history and origin consequently obscured. 

 Thus it was attributed to one James Metius, who used to make 

 burning glasses and mirrors, and who, casually looking through 

 two of his lenses at a time, noticed that distant objects were brought 

 apparently near. Other writers assign the discovery to John 

 Lippersheim, or Lipperhay, of Middleburg, in Zealand ; while 

 Borellus gives the credit to Zacharias Jansen, another maker of 

 spectacles of the same place, who it is stated made the first tele- 

 scope in 1590. Several claimants, however, arose and asserted their 

 rights to be called inventors, such as Francis Fontana, an Italian, 

 who claims to have made a telescope in 1608, but it is well known 

 that they were publicly sold in Holland long before that date. 

 Some say that Galileo ought to be considered the inventor, but 

 he himself disclaims any right to be so considered. His own 

 account of the invention of the telescope is that hearing of 

 some such contrivance, from rumours floating about, he set himself 

 to consider upon what optical principles such an effect could be 

 produced, and at length constructed a telescope, which showed dis- 

 tant objects magnified and erect, while the alleged discoveries of 

 either Jansen or Lipperhay showed inverted images. Galileo 

 would probably be about 30 years of age at this time, and, perhaps, 

 making himself acquainted with all the scientific doings of the 

 period, and hearing of the telescopes but not seeing them, would 

 construct one on his own principles, and thus become a discoverer 

 equally with the Dutch opticians. About this time much interest 

 appears to have been taken in the effects produced by varying the 

 position of lenses and by an alteration in their curvature, and thus 

 the invention of microscopes followed very quickly on that of 

 telescopes ; and, according to Borellus, Zacharias Jansen again 

 comes to the front with a composite form, something between a 

 telescope and a microscope. The invention of microscopes has 

 been claimed by Signor Fontana, who seems to have laid claim to 



