The invention of spectacles, then, or the simplest form 

 of microscoj>e, may be divided between Roger Bacon and 

 the Florentine. 



Once the spectacles lens became an established fact, 

 it was an easy transition to lenses of shorter and shorter 

 focus, and eventually to the combination of lenses which 

 go to form the compound microscope as we know it 

 to-day. 



It was between 1590 and 1609 that the first 

 microscope as distinguished from a mere magnifying lens 

 was invented. 



Robin, of Paris, member of the Academy of Science, 

 sums up the claim of the various inventors. He remarks: 

 " The invention of the compound microscope goes back to 

 the year 15 90." It is to the Dutchmen, Hans and 

 Zacharias Janssen — father and son, that the honour of it 

 is due (qu'en revient I'honneur). Janssen offered one to 

 the Archduke Charles Albert of Austria, who made a 

 present of it to Cornelius Drebcll, a Dutch Alchemist, 

 mathematician to James 1st, who died in 16 64. Drebell 

 brought the instrument to England, showed it to Borelli 

 and many professors, constructed microscopes in London 

 in the year 1621, and passed himself off as their inventor, 

 which was believed for a long time. (Ce dont la croyance 

 dura longtemps.) 



Cornelius Drebell's microscope was a copper tube, 

 six feet long, and one inch in diameter, supported by 

 three brass pillars in the shape of Dolphins; these were 

 fixed to a base of ebony, on which objects to be viewed 

 were placed. 



Personally, I do not think that Cornelius Drebell has 

 been fairly treated. He was a man of great genius, and 

 even though he obtained his ideas from Holland, he made 



