EPOCHS IN BIOLOGICAL HISTORY 387 



compound microscope as a development of the telescope 

 at the hands of Galileo about 1610, and by the middle of the 

 century simple and compound microscopes were being made 

 by opticians in the leading centers of Europe. 



The earliest clear appreciation of the importance of study- 

 ing nature with instruments which increase the powers of 

 the senses in general and of vision in particular is found in 



FIQ. 199. Antony van Leeuwenhoek. 



a remarkable book, by HOOKE (1635-1703) of London, pub- 

 lished in 1665. Using his improved compound microscope, 

 Hooke clearly observed and figured for the first time the 

 "little boxes or cells" of organic structure, and his use of the 

 word cell is responsible for its application to the protoplas- 

 mic units of modern biology. 



Microscopical work was a mere incident among the varied 

 interests of Hooke, while LEEUWENHOEK (1632-1723) of 

 Holland spent a long life studying nearly everything which 



