INTRODUCTION OF THE MICROSCOPE 71 



worker, and in finishing his treatise on bees (1673) ne broke 

 himself down. 



"It was an undertaking too great for the strongest con- 

 stitution to be continually employed by day in making obser- 

 vations and almost as constantly engaged by night in record- 

 ing tli em by drawings and suitable explanations. This being 

 summer work, his daily labors began at six in the morning, 

 when the sun afforded him light enough to enable him to 

 survey such minute objects; and from that time till twelve 

 he continued without interruption, all the while exposed in 

 the open air to the scorching heat of the sun, bareheaded, 

 for fear of interrupting the light, and his head in a manner 

 dissolving into sweat under the irresistible ardors of that 

 powerful luminary. And if he desisted at noon, it was only 

 because the strength of his eyes w r as too much weakened by 

 the extraordinary efflux of light and the use of microscopes 

 to continue any longer upon such small objects. 



"This fatigue our author submitted to for a whole month 

 together, without any interruption, merely to examine, de- 

 scribe, and represent the intestines of bees, besides many 

 months more bestowed upon the other parts; during which 

 time he spent whole days in making observations, as long as 

 there was sufficient light to make any, and whole nights in 

 registering his observations, till at last he brought his treatise 

 on bees to the wished-for perfection." 



Method of Work. "For dissecting very minute objects, he 

 had a brass table made on purpose by that ingenious artist, 

 Samuel Musschenbroek. To this table were fastened two 

 brass arms, movable at pleasure to any part of it, and the 

 upper portion of these arms was likewise so contrived as to 

 be susceptible of a very slow vertical motion, by which means 

 the operator could readily alter their height as he saw most 

 convenient to his purpose. The office of one of these arms 

 was to hold the little corpuscles, and that of the other to apply 



