302 THE SCIENCE OF MICROSCOPY. 



We do not, it may be contended, recognise in the same manner 

 the employment of other optical instruments, the telescope for 

 instance, as the occasion fraison d'etrej of so many distinct 

 sciences. Yet the telescope is to astronomy what the microscope 

 is to histology, morphology, &c. — the instrument and sole warrant 

 of all discoveries achieved outside the scope of ordinary vision. 

 Moreover, observations made with the telescope raised the first 

 suggestion of "penetrating" and **■ resolving'' powers, of which so 

 much use has been made in explaining the peculiar functions of 

 the microscope. To say that we have no science of '' telescopy " 

 is, however, simply begging the question whether telescopy be a 

 science or not, and therefore fails as an argument against a science 

 of microscopy. And so of all other optical instruments used in 

 scientific researches. 



Again, it will be said, we do not regard the numerous ''sciences 

 of observation '' in the prosecution of which the microscope has 

 become indispensable, as so many fragments or sections of an 

 indivisible whole, known in the aggregate as microscopic science, 

 but, on the contrary, we assign to each its title and character, 

 {g.e., embryology — vegetal or animal morphology, &c.) according 

 to the nature of the subject of which it treats. Nor do we attach 

 a particular significance to microscopy, as expressing any difference 

 or contrast in the essential nature of things visible and things 

 invisible to the naked eye, implying that there is one science of 

 the macrocosm and another of the microcosm^ for the microscope 

 itself has been the most potent means of dispelling any such 

 fancies.* 



* The position of one great science exceptionally characterised as 

 "microscopic" is peculiar, for we trace in the designation "microscopic 

 anatomy" much of the past history of microscopy, and the influence of a 

 powerful tradition. Anatomy was the centre and most fruitful field of 

 observations on which the great microscopists of former times concentrated 

 their work with an energy and devotion that absorbed every service to which 

 the microscope could then he put. As, however, microscopic research 

 extended itself over the whole domain of plant and animal structure, and, 



