II 



such use of his knowledge that he evolved some of th^ 

 first compound microscopes in England. 



Without his stimulating enthusiasm in this country, we 

 should never have been able to keep pace with the Italian 

 schools, schools which up to this time had been fully 

 one hundred years ahead of us in scientific research. 



England was given up to Charlatanism of every kind, 

 Magic, black or otherwise, the transmutation of metals, 

 the search for the philosopher's stone and elixir of life. 

 Our science, in fact, was a compound of grey beards, 

 skinny fingers, and ill-lit rooms, littered with the dust 

 of ages, and retorts and vessels of quaint and curious 

 shapes. 



There was some excuse for secrecy in matters 

 scientific. Roger Bacon, as I have already mentioned, 

 spent most of his life in prison as a result of his' labours, 

 and even at a later period in history (1794) Lavoisier, 

 in France, had his head removed by the guillotine. 



Nearly all the English professors in the 16th century 

 felt it incumbent on them to go to Padua for their 

 scientific training. It was in this famous Italian school 

 that such men as Vesalius studied anatomy on the bodies 

 of criminals, whom he had killed as he required them. 

 In this school Harvey studied the circulation of the blood, 

 and owing to his discoveries, enabled us later tO' use the 

 hypodermic needle, and to venture on the administration 

 of anaesthetics, both dependent on the circulation of the 

 blood, both the outcome of his work. 



It is interesting to read that Sir Christopher Wren, 

 the famous architect, was one of the first to use a 

 hypodermic needle upon himself. 



Before passing from the subject of simple lenses to 

 microscopes proper, 1 should mention that in 1600 Kepler 



