558 Notes. 



holding 500 objects, which were arranged round large cylinders, the 

 instrument being something like a musical bos. I cannot see why- 

 some such appliance as this should not be displayed in our museums. 

 Foraminifera, Polycystines, and many other objects requiring low 

 powers, are not only very suitable for exhibition in this manner, but 

 are more instructive and interesting than wall pictures ; a few typical 

 objects might be placed under glass alongside the instrument so that 

 their actual size might be directly compared with their magnified 

 images ; this would give to the uninitiated a better idea of the real 

 size of the objects than any amount of tabulated magnifications in 

 diameters. It is also obvious that a Microscope exhibiting the objects 

 themselves would not only be cheaper but would occupy far less space 

 than a quantity of enlarged models. 



In 1864 Mr. James Smith retired, the Microscopes, in the perfect- 

 ing of which he had bestowed so much labour, long surviving him. 



The objectives of James Smith will not require a prolonged notice, 

 because his early ones were made under the directions of Mr. Lister, 

 and therefore did not materially differ from those made by Andrew 

 Koss. Smith, however, was singular in the production of separating 

 or dividing lenses, i.e. an objective capable of forming a lower power 

 by the removal of its front lens ; these have already been noticed 

 above. The following is a list of objectives, dating 1852, with their 

 apertures. 



With regard to Smith's illuminating apparatus, it is probable that 

 his achromatic condensers did not differ greatly from those of Powell 

 and Koss already mentioned ; but in 1850 Smith was the first to con- 

 struct a Wenham's parabolic reflector ; this was made of metal, and 

 not, as afterwards, of glass. The parabolic reflector, which is figured 

 by Pritchard in his Micrographia (1837), was, we are told, the inven- 

 tion of the Eev. Mr. Packman, but Smith appears to have been the 

 first actually to make it. The original one is in our cabinet. I am 

 informed that James Smith died about 1870. 



