IN MEDICAL SCIENCE. 23 



shows how the problem that Biot In 1821 pronounced 

 insolvable was in the course of a few years practically 

 solved, with a success equal to that which Dollond had 

 long before obtained with the telescope. It is enough 

 for our purpose that we are now in possession of an 

 instrument freed from all conftisions and illusions, 

 which magnifies a thousand diameters, — a million 

 times in surface, — without serious distortion or dis- 

 coloration of its object. 



A quarter of a century ago, or a little more, an 

 instructor would not have hesitated to put John Bell's 

 Anatomy and Bostock's Physiology into a student's 

 hands, as good authority on their respective subjects. 

 Let us not be unjust to either of these authors. John 

 Bell is the liveliest medical writer that I can remember 

 who has written since the days of delightftil old Am- 

 broise Pard. His picturesque descriptions and bold 

 figures are as good now as they ever were, and his 

 book can never become obsolete. But listen to what 

 John Bell says of the microscope : — 



" Philosophers of the last age had been at infinite 

 pains to find the ultimate fibre of muscles, thinking to 

 discover its properties in its form ; but they saw just 

 in proportion to the glasses which they used, or to their 

 practice and skill in that art, which is now almost for- 

 saken." * 



Dr. Bostock's work, neglected as it is, is one which 

 I value very highly as a really learned compilation, full 



* Anat. and Phys. of the Human Body, I. 273. 



