66 DR. GUY ON THE ILLUMINATOR HAND MICROSCOPE. 



"with the 02')aqve as with the travsparent object, dispensing with the 

 mirror and condenser, and throwing upon the opaque object so 

 clear and brilliant a light that it c&n be seen in its true colour, 

 form, and texture, by the common light of day, and by the light of 

 a common candle at night ; which admits of a prompt change of 

 a very large class of objects, and a consequent quick passage of 

 the instrument from hand to hand in the class-room, the village 

 school, or the social gathering — this is a novelty to which it is 

 allowable to attach some importance. 



Perhaps I shall show the use and value of the instrument best, 

 and so give an additional interest to what would otherwise be a dry 

 description, if I briefly narrate the circumstances that led me to 

 adopt this new combination. 



I was making a short visit to a country house of considerable 

 pretensions, when I saw lying on the table in the drawing-room two 

 boxes, each containing the well-known cheap microscope, with all 

 its disjointed ,parts and teasing complications. The instruments 

 were rarely looked at, and still more rarely put together for use ; 

 for the functions of the several parts were not understood, the put- 

 ting them together was a puzzle and a trouble ; and when the stem 

 of the instrument was at length screwed into the hole in the lid, 

 the mirror and condenser in their places, and the stage fixed, the 

 object, if transparent, was not easily arranged, illuminated, or got 

 into focus, and, if opaque, was still harder to deal with. On ex- 

 amining these instruments, some small element or other of the 

 combination was, in each case, found missing. Even when the 

 instruments were fairly in their places, the observer was teased and 

 tortured by the smallness of their parts, the eyes wearied by the 

 attempt to discern objects through apertures so minute, and on a 

 field so small, and the neck strained and fatigued by the stooping 

 posture. The consequence of all this complication, trouble, and 

 fatigue was, that either instrument remained for months in its box 

 untouched ;• and, as was said by the poet Cowperof a very different 

 matter — 



" And like an infant troublesome awake, 

 Was left to sleep for peace and quiet sake." 



And yet all the while the owners of the instrument were by no 

 means indifferent to the pleasure and instruction which a work- 

 able microscope is so well fitted to afford ; and I became very 



